Matching support device, matching support system, and program

ABSTRACT

A matching support device which achieve matching between demand information and supply information, quickly and accurately reflecting changes in information. The matching support device acquires supply information and/or demand information, performs a matching between the demand information and the supply information, and transmits results of the matching to a supplier terminal and a consumer terminal. The matching support device, during a period specified from the supplier terminal and/or the consumer terminal, continues reception of the supply information and/or the demand information to reflect the changes in information and to continue matching, and calculates, based on information of matchings, a schedule-to-result difference ratio of the supply plan information and/or the demand plan information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. Ser. No.16/379,262, filed Apr. 9, 2019, which is a continuation application ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/369,013, filed Jun. 26, 2014, nowU.S. Pat. No. 10,304,100, which is a 35 USC 371 PCT National Stage Entryof International Patent Application No. PCT/JP2012/083688, filed Dec.26, 2012, which claims the foreign priority benefit of Japanese PatentApplication No. 2012-179098, filed Aug. 11, 2012, and Japanese PatentApplication No. 2011-285459, filed Dec. 27, 2011, the disclosures ofwhich are incorporated herein entirety by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a technology of performing matchingbetween demand information of a consumer and supply information of asupplier for services and articles and the like.

BACKGROUND ART

Conventionally, there exists a system for matching a supply condition ofa supplier who supplies services and articles and the like (called a“supplier”, hereinafter) and requirement by a consumer who demands theservices and articles and the like (called a “consumer”, hereinafter) byusing various kinds of networks such as the Internet. For instance,conventionally, a system is known in which, when an agent from a requestorigin of a service sends a retrieval request of a desired service to aweb service matchmaker where supply information is recorded, conditionitem presentation information is outputted from the web servicematchmaker to the request origin, the request origin narrows downconditions utilizing an original retrieval request and requests theretrieval of the service again, and matching is performed by repeatingthat (for instance, see Patent Literature 1). Also, conventionally, asystem is known in which a retrieval request from a client terminal isregistered as a pattern, and the pattern is utilized when retrieval isrequested for two or more times (for instance, see Patent Literature 2and Patent Literature 3). Also, conventionally, a system is known inwhich perishable commodity information transmitted from a perishablecommodity producer terminal managed by a producer is recorded in aperishable commodity information provision server, and a consumerterminal managed by a consumer accesses the perishable commodityinformation provision server and acquires the perishable commodityinformation (for instance, see patent Literature 4).

CITATION LIST Patent Literature

Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-30428

Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-282841

Patent Literature 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-92845

Patent Literature 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-276425

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

However, supply information of services and commodities often changessuccessively. In contrast, in configurations described in PatentLiteratures 1-4 above, a consumer accesses a server or the like using aterminal, only matches demand on the basis of the supply informationstored in the server or the like at one point of time in the past, andis incapable of matching adapted to a present or future supplycondition.

In view of such a problem, an object of the present invention is toprovide a matching support device, a matching support system, and aprogram for achieving matching between demand information and supplyinformation, quickly and accurately reflecting the changes ininformation.

Solution to Problem

A matching support device according to the present invention is thematching support device formed mutually communicably between a supplierterminal used by a supplier supplying services and articles or the likeand a consumer terminal used by a consumer demanding provision of theservices and charged or free transfer of the articles or the like, andincludes information recording means that acquires supply information ofthe services and the articles or the like transmitted from the supplierterminal and/or demand information of the services and the articles orthe like transmitted from the consumer terminal, and records the supplyinformation and/or the demand information, matching means that performsmatching between the demand information and the supply information, andresult transmission means that transmits a result of the matching to thesupplier terminal and the consumer terminal. The information recordingmeans continues reception of the supply information and/or the demandinformation during an arbitrary period specified from the supplierterminal and/or the consumer terminal, and holds a record of the supplyinformation and/or the demand information for the arbitrary period, andthe matching means performs the matching between the supply informationand/or the demand information already received and the supplyinformation and/or the demand information that is newly received duringthe arbitrary period.

In the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means, when the matching between the demand information and thesupply information is established during the arbitrary period, recordsthe established matching information in the information recording means,holds the established matching information, and continues the matchingfor the demand information and/or the supply information related to theestablished matching information, and the matching means performsprocessing assuming that a transaction is established for the helddemand information and/or the held supply information, that istransmitted to the supplier terminal and/or the consumer terminal by theresult transmission means during the arbitrary period or after the endof the arbitrary period, and selected by the supplier terminal and/orthe consumer terminal, and/or, the supplier using the supplier terminaland/or the consumer using the consumer terminal.

In the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means ends the matching at the point of time of acquiring aninstruction to end the matching from the supplier terminal and/or theconsumer terminal even during the arbitrary period.

The matching support device according to the present invention includestrigger means that monitors an adapting situation of an arbitrarycondition, and when adapted to the arbitrary condition, makes thematching means perform the matching with the adaptation as a trigger,and the trigger means, when at least one of the new supply information,the new demand information and updating information which updates thealready acquired supply information or the already acquired demandinformation is acquired from the supplier terminal and/or the consumerterminal, makes the matching means perform the matching with at leastone of the supply information, the demand information and the updatinginformation as the trigger.

In the matching support device according to the present invention, theresult transmission means transmits the supply information for which thematching is not established and/or the demand information for which thematching is not established to the consumer terminal and/or the supplierterminal.

The matching support device according to the present invention includesschedule management means that has a time-sequential schedulepreparation function and a schedule management function, and performsschedule preparation and schedule management for a schedule of theconsumer using the consumer terminal and/or the supplier using thesupplier terminal, the matching means sends the result of the matchingto the schedule management means, and the schedule management meansprepares the schedule using the result of the matching.

In the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means performs the matching on the basis of a request of theschedule management means.

In the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means calculates a schedule-to-result difference ratio of theconsumer and/or the supplier and plan reliability based on theschedule-to-result difference ratio, by an arbitrary operation performedfor past demand plan information as a plan to perform a transaction onthe basis of the demand information before an arbitrary point of time bythe consumer and a result of an actual transaction performed on thebasis of the demand information and/or an arbitrary operation performedfor past supply plan information as a plan to perform supply or the likeof commodities on the basis of the supply information before thearbitrary point of time by the supplier and a result of an actualtransaction performed on the basis of the supply information, and formsstatistical information for measuring reliability and a trend value offuture demand plan information as a plan to perform a transaction on thebasis of the demand information after the arbitrary point of time by theconsumer and/or future supply plan information as a plan to perform thesupply or the like of commodities on the basis of the supply informationafter the arbitrary point of time by the supplier, on the basis of thecalculated schedule-to-result difference ratio and plan reliability.

In the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means forms the statistical information using various kinds ofinformation including at least an evaluation by a third person on thetransaction of the consumer and/or the transaction of the supplier, inaddition to the schedule-to-result difference ratio and the planreliability.

A matching support system according to the present invention includesthe supplier terminal used by the supplier supplying services andarticles or the like, the consumer terminal used by the consumerdemanding provision of the services and charged or free transfer of thearticles or the like, and the matching support device formed mutuallycommunicably between the supplier terminal and the consumer terminal.The matching support device includes the information recording meansthat acquires the supply information of the services and the articles orthe like transmitted from the supplier terminal and/or the demandinformation of the services and the articles or the like transmittedfrom the consumer terminal, and records the supply information and/orthe demand information, the matching means that performs the matchingbetween the demand information and the supply information, and theresult transmission means that transmits a result of the matching to thesupplier terminal and the consumer terminal, the information recordingmeans continues the reception of the supply information and/or thedemand information during the arbitrary period specified from thesupplier terminal and/or the consumer terminal, and holds the record ofthe supply information and/or the demand information for the arbitraryperiod, and the matching means performs the matching between the supplyinformation and/or the demand information already received and thesupply information and/or the demand information that is newly receivedduring the arbitrary period.

A program according to the present invention makes a computer functionas the matching support device according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

By the matching support device and the matching support system accordingto the present invention, the information recording means continues thereception of the supply information and/or the demand information duringthe arbitrary period specified from the supplier terminal and/or theconsumer terminal, and holds the record of the supply information and/orthe demand information for the arbitrary period, and the matching meansperforms the matching between the supply information and/or the demandinformation already received in the arbitrary period and the supplyinformation and/or the demand information that is newly received, sothat not only the matching between the supply information and the demandinformation already received and recorded in the information recordingmeans but also the matching using the supply information and the demandinformation updated at all times can be performed. Thus, it is possibleto achieve the matching between the demand information and the supplyinformation quickly and surely reflecting changes in information.

By the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means records, during the arbitrary period, the establishedmatching information in the information recording means, holds theestablished matching information, and continues the matching for thedemand information and/or the supply information related to theestablished matching information, and the matching means performsprocessing assuming that a transaction is established for the demandinformation and/or the supply information, that is transmitted to thesupplier terminal and/or the consumer terminal by the resulttransmission means during the arbitrary period or after the end of thearbitrary period, and selected by the supplier terminal and/or theconsumer terminal, and/or, the supplier using the supplier terminaland/or the consumer using the consumer terminal, so that the supplierand the consumer can tentatively hold the demand information and thesupply information for which the matching is established during thearbitrary period, and select the best one of the held demand informationand supply information during the arbitrary period or after the end ofthe arbitrary period, and the transaction can be established for thedemand information and the supply information selected by the supplierand the consumer. Thus, it is possible to provide the supplier and theconsumer with an opportunity to select the best one from the servicesand the commodities or the like adapted to the condition of the matchingand establish the transaction.

By the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means ends the matching at the point of time of acquiring theinstruction to end the matching from the supplier terminal and/or theconsumer terminal even during the arbitrary period, thereby preventingthe situation that the matching is performed again for the supplyinformation and the demand information for which the matching is notdesired by the supplier and the consumer of the services and thecommodities and information processing and transactions are obstructed.Thus, it is possible to achieve the accurate information processing andtransactions, and surely achieve the matching between the demandinformation and the supply information quickly and accurately reflectingthe changes in the information.

By the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching between the demand information and the supply information canbe performed with a set arbitrary condition as a trigger. Also, thetrigger means, when at least one of the new supply information, the newdemand information and the updating information which updates thealready acquired supply information or the already acquired demandinformation is acquired from the supplier terminal and/or the consumerterminal, makes the matching means perform the matching with at leastone of the supply information, the demand information and the updatinginformation as the trigger, so that the matching quickly reflecting thechanges generated in the information transmitted from a supplier sideand/or a consumer side is performed, and a quick transaction opportunitycan be given to the supplier and the consumer who have provided theinformation. Also, by transmitting the result of the matching to theconsumer terminal and/or the supplier terminal successively, a furthertransaction opportunity based on establishment or non-establishment ofthe matching can be quickly and accurately given to the consumer and thesupplier.

By the matching support device according to the present invention, theresult transmission means transmits the supply information for which thematching is not established and/or the demand information for which thematching is not established to the consumer terminal and/or the supplierterminal, so that both of the consumer using the consumer terminal andthe supplier using the supplier terminal are made to recognize contentsof the service and the commodity for which matching establishment isbeing waited for at present and desires of the consumer waiting for thematching establishment at present or the like, and notification of thesupply information and transmission of the supply information accordingto the demand information are accelerated. Thus, it is possible toincrease the possibility of the matching establishment.

By the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means sends the result of the matching to the schedulemanagement means, and the schedule management means prepares theschedule using the result of the matching, so that the schedulemanagement of the consumer and the supplier and the matching are linked,and the schedule of the consumer and the supplier can be prepared usingthe result of the matching. Thus, it is possible to improve conveniencewhen preparing the schedule on the basis of the result of the matchingbetween the demand information and the supply information.

By the matching support device according to the present invention, thematching means performs the matching on the basis of a request of theschedule management means so that it is made possible to perform thematching for the demand information and the supply information requiredin the process of preparing the schedule and establish the matching. Inparticular, when setting is such that the matching can be requested froma schedule preparation screen displayed at the consumer terminal and thesupplier terminal, the consumer and the supplier can request thematching between the demand information and the supply information tothe matching support device from the schedule preparation screen. Thus,it is possible to further improve the convenience when requesting thematching between the demand information and the supply information onthe basis of schedule contents.

By the matching support device according to the present invention, bycalculating the schedule-to-result difference ratio of the consumerand/or the supplier and the plan reliability based on theschedule-to-result difference ratio, and forming the statisticalinformation for measuring the reliability and the trend value of thefuture demand plan information and/or future supply plan information onthe basis of the calculated schedule-to-result difference ratio and planreliability, it is made possible to predict and analyze, with highaccuracy and a high probability, what kind of purchase and supply are tobe actually performed for a transaction plan registered by theindividual consumer and the individual supplier, and it is possible toimprove convenience when the consumer and the supply make thetransaction plan.

By the matching support device according to the present invention, byusing various kinds of information including at least an evaluation by athird person on the transaction of the consumer and/or the transactionof the supplier for the formation of the statistical information, it ismade possible to improve accuracy of the statistical information andpredict and analyze, with higher accuracy and a higher probability, whatkind of purchase and supply are to be actually performed for thetransaction plan registered by the individual consumer and theindividual supplier.

By the program according to the present invention, the matching supportdevice according to the present invention can be achieved on variouskinds of computer hardware.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a network configuration and afunctional block illustrating an overall configuration of the matchingsupport device and the matching support system according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a database configuring the matchingsupport device and the matching support system according to theembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a data structure of supplyinformation recorded in the database configuring the matching supportdevice and the matching support system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a time chart illustrating a processing procedure of matching,in the matching support device and the matching support system accordingto the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a main part of the procedure of thematching, in the matching support device and the matching support systemaccording to the embodiment.

FIG. 6A is a diagram schematically illustrating transition of data inthe matching performed with demand information as a trigger, in thematching support device and the matching support system according to theembodiment.

FIG. 6B is a diagram schematically illustrating the transition of thedata in the matching performed with the demand information as a trigger,in the matching support device and the matching support system accordingto the embodiment.

FIG. 7A is a diagram schematically illustrating the transition of thedata in the matching performed with the supply information as a trigger,in the matching support device and the matching support system accordingto the embodiment.

FIG. 7B is a diagram schematically illustrating the transition of thedata in the matching performed with the supply information as a trigger,in the matching support device and the matching support system accordingto the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a menu screenafter login at a display unit of the consumer terminal and/or thesupplier terminal, in the matching support device and the matchingsupport system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a resourceelement list screen at the display unit of the consumer terminal and thesupplier terminal, in the matching support device and the matchingsupport system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a supplyresource element individual information screen at the display unit ofthe supplier terminal, in the matching support device and the matchingsupport system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a weeklyschedule display screen at the display unit of the consumer terminal andthe supplier terminal, in the matching support device and the matchingsupport system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a dailyschedule display screen at the display unit of the consumer terminal, inthe matching support device and the matching support system according tothe embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a supplyinformation confirmation screen at the display unit of the supplierterminal, in the matching support device and the matching support systemaccording to the embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a demandinformation confirmation screen at the display unit of the consumerterminal, in the matching support device and the matching support systemaccording to the embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a matchingresult new arrival information screen at the display unit of theconsumer terminal and the supplier terminal, in the matching supportdevice and the matching support system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying an event unitschedule display screen at the display unit of the supplier terminal, inthe matching support device and the matching support system according tothe embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying the event unitschedule display screen at the display unit of the consumer terminal, inthe matching support device and the matching support system according tothe embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying an event unitmatching result list screen at the display unit of the supplierterminal, in the matching support device and the matching support systemaccording to the embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying the event unitmatching result list screen at the display unit of the consumerterminal, in the matching support device and the matching support systemaccording to the embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a matchingresult individual information screen at the display unit of the supplierterminal, in the matching support device and the matching support systemaccording to the embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying the matchingresult individual information screen at the display unit of the consumerterminal, in the matching support device and the matching support systemaccording to the embodiment.

FIG. 22 is a conceptual diagram of a state of displaying a monthlyschedule display screen at the display unit of the consumer terminal, inthe matching support system according to the embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated in FIG. 1 to FIG.22.

<Basic Configuration of Network and Function>

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a network and a functional blockillustrating an overall configuration of a matching support device 1 anda matching support system 1A according to the embodiment of the presentinvention. Hereinafter, on the basis of the diagram, the basicconfiguration of the network and functions of the matching supportsystem 1A will be described.

The matching support system 1A includes the matching support device 1, n(n≥1) supplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n), and m (m≥1) consumerterminals 3 ₁, . . . , 3 _(m). The matching support device 1, thesupplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n), and the consumer terminals 3 ₁,. . . , 3 _(m) are mutually communicable through a network 4. Thenetwork 4 is data communication means for performing mutuallycommunicable connection regardless of a configuration device type suchas a network device, a server, a PC, a smart phone and a cellular phone.Specifically, an example is the Internet, however it is not limited tothe Internet. That is, the network 4 may be any network form whether itis open or closed or the like, and may be any network area whether it isa LAN or a WAN or the like.

Also, in the matching support system 1A, there is the case that oneterminal is used as both of the supplier terminal (the supplier terminal2 ₁, for instance) and the consumer terminal (the consumer terminal 3 ₁,for instance) (see [notation of terminal] described later), however, inthis <basic configuration of network and function> and <basicconfiguration of data>, in order to simplify descriptions, the case thatone terminal function as each of the supplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2_(n) or each of the consumer terminals 3 ₁, . . . , 3 _(m) will bedescribed without including the case that it is used as both.

The matching support system 1A illustrated in FIG. 1 is used forperforming matching between demand information 112 a (see FIG. 2) of aconsumer and supply information 111 a (see FIG. 2) of a supplier, forservices and articles or the like. The supplier and the consumer hereeach are one party of so-called B to B, B to C, and C to C. That is, thematching support system 1A is used in any of inter-businesstransactions, business-to-individual transactions, andindividual-to-individual transactions.

Also, the matching support system 1A is used for managing a schedule ofthe supplier and the consumer. Specifically, the matching support system1A is used for recording schedule information 111 b (see FIG. 2) and/orschedule information 112 b (see FIG. 2) on the basis of the schedule orthe like provided from the respective suppliers and the respectiveconsumers, and supplying reminder information (not shown in the figure)based on the recorded schedule information 111 b and 112 b. Also, thematching support system 1A is used for reflecting the result of thematching on the schedule information 111 b and/or the scheduleinformation 112 b.

Further, the matching support system 1A is also capable of linking afunction of the schedule management and a function of the matching.Specifically, the matching support system 1A is used for matching one orboth of the supply information 111 a and the demand information 112 a onthe basis of the schedule information 111 b and 112 b recorded by thesupplier and the consumer.

The matching support device 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 is a server computerfor performing the matching between the demand information 112 a of theconsumer and the supply information 111 a of the supplier, and is usedfor performing the matching between the demand information 112 atransmitted and registered from the consumer terminals 3 ₁, . . . , 3_(m) and the supply information 111 a transmitted and registered fromthe supplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n). Also, the matching supportdevice 1 is the server computer for managing the schedule as well, andis used for recording the schedule information 111 b and 112 b on thebasis of the schedule or the like inputted from the respective consumerterminals 3 ₁, . . . , 3 _(m) and the respective supplier terminals 2 ₁,. . . , 2 _(n), and transmitting the reminder information (not shown inthe figure) to the consumer terminals 3 ₁, . . . , 3 _(m) and thesupplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n) on the basis of the recordedschedule information 111 b and 112 b. Also the matching support device 1is used for performing the matching for one or both of the supplyinformation 111 a and the demand information 112 a on the basis of therecorded schedule information 111 b and 112 b. Also, the matchingsupport device 1 may be formed of one computer or may be formed of aplurality of computer systems interconnected by the network 4.

The matching support device 1 includes, though not shown in the figure,at least one CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory)that functions as a work area of the CPU, a ROM (Read Only Memory) wherea boot program for activation or the like is recorded, an auxiliarystorage device such as a hard disk where various kinds of programs anddata or the like are recorded, and a communication interface used fortransmitting and receiving the data, etc. In the auxiliary storagedevice, a program for an OS (Operating System), various kinds ofapplication programs, and the data recorded in a database 11 a (see FIG.2) or the like are recorded. These programs and data, by arithmeticprocessing of the CPU, cooperate with hardware resources to achievevarious kinds of functions.

The supplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n) illustrated in FIG. 1 includeoperation units 21 ₁, . . . , 21 _(n) and display units 22 ₁, . . . , 22_(g). The supplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n) are communicationterminals having a data communication function, to be used by thesupplier who supplies services and articles or the like such asprovision of various kinds of services and sales of various kinds ofarticles, and a personal computer or a cellular phone terminal includinga so-called smart phone or the like corresponds to the supplierterminal. The operation units 21 ₁, . . . , 21 _(n) are a mouse or akeyboard or the like and used for inputting various kinds ofinstructions. The display units 22 ₁, . . . , 22 _(n) are composed of anLCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or the like, and display various kinds ofinstructions or the like and various kinds of images inputted from theoperation units 21 ₁, . . . , 21 _(g). Also, the operation units 21 ₁, .. . , 21 _(n) may be configured as a touch panel function on the displayunits 22 ₁, . . . , 22 _(n).

The consumer terminals 3 ₁, . . . , 3 _(m) illustrated in FIG. 1 includeoperation units 31 ₁, . . . , 31 _(m) and display units 32 ₁, . . . , 32_(m). The consumer terminals 3 ₁, . . . , 3 _(m) are communicationterminals having a data communication function, to be used by theconsumer who demands the provision of services and charged or freetransfer of articles or the like, and a personal computer or a cellularphone terminal including a so-called smart phone or the like correspondsto the consumer terminal. The operation units 31 ₁, . . . , 31 _(m) andthe display units 32 ₁, . . . , 32 _(m) have the same configuration asthe operation units 21 ₁, . . . , 21 _(n) and the display units 22 ₁, .. . , 22 _(n) of the supplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n).

Since the supplier terminals 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n), the operation units 21₁, . . . , 21 _(n), the display units 22 ₁, . . . , 22 _(n), theconsumer terminals 3 ₁, . . . , 3 _(m), the operation units 31 ₁, . . ., 31 _(m), and the display units 32 ₁, . . . , 32 _(m) have the sameconfiguration, hereinafter, except for the case that they need to bediscriminated, they are described as the supplier terminal 2, theoperation unit 21, the display unit 22, the consumer terminal 3, theoperation unit 31, and the display unit 32.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the matching support device 1 includesfunctional means that is achieved on the basis of the above describedvarious kinds of programs and the hardware resources. Specifically, thematching support device 1 includes an information recording unit 11 asthe “information recording means”, a matching unit 12 as the “matchingmeans”, a trigger unit 13 as the “trigger means”, a result transmissionunit 14 as the “result transmission means”, and a schedule managementunit 15 as the “schedule management means”.

The information recording unit 11 illustrated in FIG. 1 acquires thesupply information 111 a of the services and articles or the liketransmitted from the supplier terminal 2, the demand information 112 aof the services and articles or the like transmitted from the consumerterminal 3, and various kinds of information transmitted from thesupplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3, and records thesupply information 111 a, the demand information 112 a and the scheduleinformation 111 b and 112 b.

The information recording unit 11 is composed of the database 11 a and adatabase management device (not shown in the figure). In the database 11a, various kinds of data for the matching and the schedule managementare recorded. The database management device (not shown in the figure)manages the database 11 a, and has a function of responding to variouskinds of access requests made from the supplier terminal 2 and/or theconsumer terminal 3 to the data related to the supply information 111 aand/or the demand information 112 a, the schedule information 111 band/or the schedule information 112 b, and resource element information111 c (see FIG. 2) and/or resource element information 112 c (see FIG.2).

The matching unit 12 includes a language analysis engine which performskeyword extraction processing by language analysis or the like, aclassification engine which performs the processing of classifying asingle element (individual elements such as a “noun” or an “adjective”or the like when it is a part of speech for instance) of various kindsof information into a plurality of categories, and a matching enginewhich performs relation analogical reasoning and matching processingbetween the single elements and composite elements of the various kindsof information, or the like, acquires the supply information 111 a ofthe services and articles or the like transmitted from the supplierterminal 2 and the demand information 112 a of the services and articlesor the like transmitted from the consumer terminal 3, and performs thematching between the demand information 112 a and the supply information111 a. Also, the demand information 112 a and the supply information 111a acquired by the matching unit 12 may be recorded together in theinformation recording unit 11. Also, for the supply information 111 aand/or the demand information 112 a to be used for the matching by thematching unit 12, the one recorded in the information recording unit 11may be used and the supply information 111 a acquired from the supplierterminal 2 and/or the demand information 112 a acquired from theconsumer terminal 3 may be used as it is.

The trigger unit 13 monitors an adapting situation of an arbitrarycondition, and when adapted to the arbitrary condition, makes thematching unit 12 perform the matching with the adaptation as a trigger(it means a trigger of event execution. The same applies in the presentdescription). The trigger unit 13 uses trigger information 113 a (seeFIG. 2) of management information 113 (see FIG. 2) as the trigger.

The result transmission unit 14 transmits the result of the matching inthe matching unit 12 to the supplier terminal 2 and the consumerterminal 3. The result transmission unit 14 includes a recommendationengine which performs transmission or the like of recommendationinformation determined to be very likely to be along a preference of theconsumer terminal 3 on the basis of the result of the matching andsetting information of the consumer terminal 3 or the like. Also, theresult transmission unit 14 transmits the supply information 111 a forwhich the matching is not established and/or the demand information 112a for which the matching is not established to the consumer terminal 3and/or the supplier terminal 2 by using the function of therecommendation engine.

The schedule management unit 15 includes a schedule engine whichprepares the schedule information 111 b and 112 b for which the schedulecomposed of the single elements and composite elements of the variouskinds of information are developed on a time base, and records theprepared schedule information 111 b and 112 b. The schedule managementunit 15 has a time-sequential schedule preparation function and aschedule management function, and performs schedule preparation andschedule management by using the schedule information 111 b and/or theschedule information 112 b of the consumer using the consumer terminal 3and/or the supplier using the supplier terminal 2. Also, the schedulemanagement unit 15 records the schedule information 111 b and/or theschedule information 112 b of the consumer using the consumer terminal 3and/or the supplier using the supplier terminal 2. Also, the schedulemanagement unit 15 has a time management function for performing variouskinds of processing required for the preparation and change of theschedule information 111 b and 112 b.

[Resource Element Information]

Before describing the basic configuration of the data, “resource elementinformation” in the present description will be described.

The “resource element information” in the present description is not aresource (a supply resource provided by the supplier) in the matchingitself, and is element information related to a resource and/or quality,in information defined as an element of the matching by the consumerand/or the supplier.

For instance, the resource element information provided by the supplierindicates the element information of the minimum configuration unit of asuppliable resource or the like. Here, for instance, when the supplieris a manager of a restaurant, information such as “first table: for 5persons”, “second table; for 10 persons” and “third table; for 15persons” . . . existing in the restaurant corresponds to the “elementinformation of the minimum configuration unit of the suppliableresource”. Also, the resource element information sometimes includes, asthe resource in the broad sense, default information related to theresource of the supplier used constantly when configuring a supplyelement, or information for complementing the resource. Specifically,for instance, when the supplier is a manager of a restaurant,information on affiliated stores of the restaurant and information on agroup company, and for instance, when the supplier is an individual,individual information of the individual supplier and information onprovidable skills or the like correspond to it.

Also, for instance, the resource element information provided by theconsumer indicates default information or the like of the consumer usedconstantly when configuring a demand element as the resource in thebroad sense. Specifically, individual information of the individualconsumer, location information and information on hobbies andpreferences or the like correspond to it.

<Basic Configuration of Data>

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of the database 11 a configuring thematching support device 1, and FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagramillustrating a data structure of the supply information 111 a recordedin the database 11 a. Hereinafter, based on them, the basicconfiguration of the data will be described.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, in the database 11 a, supplier sideinformation 111, consumer side information 112, management information113, and individual information 114 are recorded.

The supplier side information 111 includes the supply information 111 a,the schedule information 111 b, and the resource element information 111c.

The resource element information 111 c is, of the “resource elementinformation” mentioned above, the one provided from the supplier.

The schedule information 111 b is information related to the schedule ofthe supplier using the supplier terminal 2.

The supply information 111 a is supply element information includinginformation related to the resource, that is transmitted from thesupplier side and registered in the matching support device 1, and isused for the matching with the demand information 112 a (detail will bedescribed later). The supply information 111 a is generated andregistered in the state of combining information for which all or partof the resource element information 111 c is acquired (by duplication,for instance) and information related to the supply of the individualresources or the like (the articles, the services and the information orthe like that can be turned to an object of the matching by the consumerand/or the supplier, and the resources and/or things other than theresources. The same applies in the present description.) transmittedfrom the supplier terminal 2.

The state that the supply information 111 a is “transmitted from thesupplier” here includes both of the state that the resource elementinformation 111 c for generating the supply information 111 a istransmitted from the supplier terminal 2 by the supplier (see step S1 of<operation procedure 1> described later) and the state that directtransmission is performed (not as the resource element information 111 cbut as the supply information 111 a itself) from the supplier terminal 2by the supplier (see step S2 of <operation procedure 2> described later)in this embodiment.

The supply information 111 a also includes matching result information111 aa (see FIG. 6B) as a result of the establishment of the matchingwith arbitrary demand information 112 a.

The consumer side information 112 includes the demand information 112 a,the schedule information 112 b, and the resource element information 112c.

The resource element information 112 c is, of the “resource elementinformation”, the one provided from the consumer.

The schedule information 112 b is information related to the schedule ofthe consumer using the consumer terminal 3.

The demand information 112 a is demand element information includinginformation related to the resource, that is transmitted from theconsumer terminal 3 and registered in the matching support device 1, andis used for the matching with the supply information 111 a (detail willbe described later). The demand information 112 a is generated andregistered in the state of combining information for which all or partof the resource element information 112 c is acquired and used(duplicated, for instance) and information related to the demand of theconsumer for the resources or the like, that is transmitted from theconsumer by the consumer terminal 3. The demand information 112 a may begenerated by one of the information for which all or part of theresource element information 112 c is acquired and used and theinformation related to the demand of the consumer for the resources orthe like, that is transmitted from the consumer by the consumer terminal3.

The state that the demand information 112 a is “transmitted from theconsumer” here includes both of the state that the resource elementinformation 112 c or the like for generating the demand information 112a is transmitted from the consumer terminal 3 by the consumer (see stepS1 of <operation procedure 2> described later) and the state that directtransmission is performed (not as the resource element information 112 cbut as the demand information 112 a itself) from the consumer terminal 3by the consumer (see step S2 of <operation procedure 1> described later)in this embodiment.

The demand information 112 a also includes matching result information112 aa (see FIG. 7B) as a result of the establishment of the matchingwith arbitrary supply information 111 a.

The management information 113 includes trigger information 113 a. Thetrigger information 113 a is the record of information to be a triggerof the matching between the supply information 111 a and the demandinformation 112 a, and log information of the information to be thetrigger of the matching, that is acquired by the matching support device1.

The individual information 114 includes user information 114 a, contractinformation 114 b, and history information 114 c. The user information114 a includes information (individual information or the like) of auser using the matching support system 1A (including the supplier usingthe supplier terminal 2 and the consumer using the consumer terminal 3).The contract information 114 b includes contract information of the userusing the matching support system 1A. The history information 114 cincludes a system utilization history of the user using the matchingsupport system 1A.

The supply information 111 a will be described in detail.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the supply information 111 a includesretrieval assistance information 111 a 10, an information body 111 a 20,and matching status information 111 a 30.

The retrieval assistance information 111 a 10 is various kinds ofinformation required for classification and retrieval or the like of thesupply information 111 a, and includes classification information 111 a11, tag information 111 a 12, time information 111 a 13, and retrievalword information 111 a 14.

The classification information 111 a 11 is various kinds of informationfor classifying the information body 111 a 20. The tag information 111 a12 is various kinds of information (example: a price and quality and thelike of the supply information 111 a) for complementing the informationbody 111 a 20. The time information 111 a 13 is information related tothe past, present or future time of supplying the service (the past,present or future time of performing the matching or the like). Theretrieval word information 111 a 14 is one or a plurality of retrievalwords set for each supply information 111 a and used for the matching.

The time information 111 a 13 is the information of the time stipulatedby the supply information 111 a, that is acquired from the scheduleinformation 111 b, and is generated on the basis of the supplyinformation 111 a.

Here, periods that can be recorded as the time information 111 a 13 maybe the ones indicated below from (period 1) to (period 3).

(Period 1) Supply Element Period

It is a period during which the supplier desires to provide thingsregistered as the supply information 111 a. For instance, when thesupply information 111 a is the information related to rental of arental conference room, the date and a time zone during which the rentalconference room is to be rented correspond to the supply element period.

(Period 2) Information Reception Period

It is a period during which the matching support device 1 and thematching support system 1A receive distribution of the informationcorresponding to the supply element period. For instance, When thesupply information 111 a is the information related to the rental of therental conference room, the period during which the demand information112 a corresponding to the element of the rental of the rentalconference room is distributed to the supplier terminal 2 or the like bythe matching support device 1 and the matching support system 1Acorresponds to the information reception period.

In this embodiment, the information reception period is stipulatedseparately from the supply element period and a matching perioddescribed later, and each can be set by the supplier using the supplierterminal 2. Thus, on the supplier side, there is an effect of beingcapable of adjusting quantity of the demand information 112 a or thelike transmitted from the consumer or the like for the supplyinformation 111 a. For instance, when the supply information 111 a isthe information related to the rental of the rental conference room andthe date and the time zone during which the rental conference room is tobe rented are several months ahead, by setting start of the informationreception period to be late or setting the period to be short, thequantity of the demand information 112 a to be transmitted for thesupply information 111 a is prevented from becoming too much. Also, bysetting the information reception period even before the start and afterthe end of the matching period described later, the supplier using thesupplier terminal 2 and the consumer using the consumer terminal 3receive transmission/reception of the information related to the supplyinformation 111 a and the demand information 112 a that are the objectsof the matching within the information reception period before the startand after the end of the matching, and it is made possible to exchangethe information mutually between the supplier and the consumer orbetween the suppliers or between the consumers.

(Period 3) Matching Period

It is a period from the start to the end of the matching of the supplyinformation 111 a, that is performed by the matching unit 12.

In this embodiment, the matching period is stipulated separately fromthe information reception period and the supply element period, and eachcan be set by the supplier using the supplier terminal 2. Thus, a periodduring which the matching between the supply information 111 a and thedemand information 112 a is performed and a period during which variouskinds of information are gathered by the consumer using the matchingsupport device 1 and the matching support system 1A or the like for thesupply information 111 a are separately stipulated, and there is aneffect of improving the convenience of the supplier.

The information body 111 a 20 includes an information body part 111 a21, and supplier information 111 a 22. The information body part 111 a21 is a body part of the information configuring the supply information111 a. The information body part 111 a 21 is constituted of specificcontents of the resource or the like supplied by the supplier, and isgenerated by acquiring and using all or part of the resource elementinformation 111 c, mainly. The supplier information 111 a 22 includesthe various kinds of information (individual information or the like)related to the supplier using the supplier terminal 2.

The matching status information 111 a 30 includes watch information 111a 31. The watch information 111 a 31 includes information related to theuser who has tried to perform the matching to the supply information 111a and the user who has performed the matching (such as the consumer whois a user of the consumer terminal 3).

Here, in the state of being recorded in the database 11 a, the supplyinformation 111 a may or may not include the time information 111 a 13.It is because that, as described above, the supply information 111 a isgenerated by using all or part of the resource element information 111c, and the resource element information 111 c sometimes does not includeinformation for stipulating the time of providing the resource or thelike in terms of a property (for instance, when the supplier is themanager of a restaurant, the resource element information 111 csometimes stipulates only the number of tables and the number of seatspresent in the restaurant).

When generating the supply information 111 a having the information forstipulating the time of providing the resource or the like (forinstance, when the supplier is the manager of a restaurant, informationrelated to the business days and business hours of the restaurant andreservation time of each seat or the like) by using the resource elementinformation 111 c not including the information for stipulating the timeof providing the resource or the like, by acquiring the information forstipulating the time of providing the resource or the like from theschedule information 111 b, and adding the acquired information to thesupply information 111 a as the time information 111 a 13 of the supplyinformation 111 a, the supply information 111 a including the timeinformation 111 a 13 is generated. Also, the information for stipulatingthe time of providing the resource or the like may be acquired from anyconfiguration other than the schedule information 111 b and used as thetime information 111 a 13 of the supply information 111 a.

Also, though not shown in the figure, the demand information 112 a has adata structure similar to that of the supply information 111 aillustrated in FIG. 3. An information body (not shown in the figure,corresponding to the information body 111 a 20 (see FIG. 3) of thesupply information 111 a) of the demand information 112 a is generatedas information including consumer information (not shown in the figure,corresponding to the supplier information 111 a 22 (see FIG. 3) of thesupply information 111 a) generated by the information using all or partof the resource element information 112 c and an information body part(not shown in the figure, corresponding to the information body part 111a 21 (see FIG. 3) of the supply information 111 a) generated byindividual demand elements (for instance, specific demand contents suchas dining at a restaurant, a conference, and a travel or the like, anddesired conditions of a location and a price or the like).

Here, in the state of being recorded in the database 11 a, the demandinformation 112 a includes time information 112 a 13 (see FIG. 7B) inprinciple. It is because that the demand element of the consumerincludes the information for stipulating the time like “a conferencefrom what time to what time” for instance, in principle. Then, the timeinformation 112 a 13 (see FIG. 7B) is generated by the informationrelated to the time at which the consumer desires to use the resource orthe like in the individual demand information 112 a. However, dependingon contents of the demand element to be the origin of the demandinformation 112 a, the demand information 112 a may not include the timeinformation 112 a 13 (see FIG. 7B).

Here, periods that can be recorded as the time information 112 a 13 maybe the ones indicated below from (period 4) to (period 6).

(Period 4) Demand Element Period

It is a period during which the consumer desires to receive theprovision of things registered as the demand information 112 a. Forinstance, when the demand information 112 a is the information relatedto dining of a small party, a desired time zone to have the diningcorresponds to the demand element period.

(Period 5) Information Reception Period

It is a period during which the matching support device 1 and thematching support system 1A receive distribution of the informationcorresponding to the demand element period. For instance, When thedemand information 112 a is the information related to the dining of asmall party, the period during which the supply information 111 acorresponding to the element of the dining is distributed to theconsumer terminal 3 or the like by the matching support device 1 and thematching support system 1A corresponds to the information receptionperiod. In this embodiment, the information reception period isstipulated separately from the demand element period and a matchingperiod described later, and each can be set by the consumer using theconsumer terminal 3. Thus, there is the same effect as the informationreception period of (period 2).

(Period 6) Matching Period

It is a period from the start to the end of the matching of the demandinformation 112 a, that is performed by the matching unit 12. In thisembodiment, the matching period is stipulated separately from theinformation reception period and the supply element period, and each canbe set by the consumer using the consumer terminal 3. Thus, there is thesame effect as the matching period of (period 3).

The time information 112 a 13 of the demand information 112 a may beincluded in the resource element information 111 c when the consumerregisters the resource element information 111 c, or the information forstipulating the time corresponding to the demand information 112 a maybe acquired from the schedule information 112 b and used when the demandinformation 112 a is generated. Also, the information for stipulatingthe time corresponding to the demand information 112 a may be acquiredfrom any configuration other than the schedule information 112 b andused.

While one, two or more pieces of supply information 111 a, one, two ormore pieces of demand information 112 a, one, two or more pieces ofresource element information 111 c, and one, two or more pieces ofresource element information 112 c are recorded in the database 11 a,hereinafter, except for the case that they need to be speciallydiscriminated, they are described as the “supply information 111 a”, the“demand information 112 a”, the “resource element information 111 c” andthe “resource element information 112 c” regardless of the quantity.

Also, which information is to be the supply information 111 a and theresource element information 111 c and which information is to be thedemand information 112 a and the resource element information 112 c arepreset in the matching support device 1. For instance, in thisembodiment, provision information of a rental conference room or arental hall or the like is the supply information 111 a, and applicationinformation for the rental is the demand information 112 a. Also,working desire information is the supply information 111 a, andemployment information is the demand information 112 a. However, whenregistering the information to be provided for the matching, thesupplier and/or the consumer using the supplier terminal 2 and/or theconsumer terminal 3 is also capable of selecting whether to register theinformation as the supply information 111 a or to register theinformation as the demand information 112 a.

<Processing Procedure of Matching>

FIG. 4 is a time chart illustrating a processing procedure of thematching in the matching support device 1 of this embodiment. FIG. 5 isa flowchart illustrating detail of a matching procedure in the matchingsupport device 1. FIG. 6A, FIG. 6B, FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B are diagramsschematically illustrating transition of the information accompanyingthe matching. Hereinafter, the processing procedure will be described onthe basis of these diagrams and screen conceptual diagrams to bedisplayed at the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3.

[For Notation of Terminal]

In the processing procedure indicated below, according to a kind ofinformation and a procedure, there is a case that one terminal is usedas the supplier terminal 2 and only the information to be displayed atthe supplier terminal 2 or only the information to be displayed at theconsumer terminal 3 is displayed on one screen. On the other hand, thereis also a case that one terminal is used as the supplier terminal 2 andthe consumer terminal 3 and the information to be displayed at thesupplier terminal 2 and the information to be displayed at the consumerterminal 3 are displayed together on one screen. In the followingdescription, they are noted as (1)-(4) below.

(1) The case that one terminal is used as the supplier terminal 2: oneterminal is noted as the “supplier terminal 2”, one operation unit isnoted as the “operation unit 21”, and one display unit is noted as the“display unit 22”.

(2) The case that one terminal is used as the consumer terminal 3: oneterminal is noted as the “consumer terminal 3”, one operation unit isnoted as the “operation unit 31”, and one display unit is noted as the“display unit 32”.

(3) The case that one terminal is used as the supplier terminal 2 andthe consumer terminal 3 and the information to be displayed at thesupplier terminal 2 and the information to be displayed at the consumerterminal 3 are displayed together on one screen: one terminal is notedas the “supplier terminal 2 and consumer terminal 3”, one operation unitis noted as the “operation unit 21 and operation unit 31”, and onedisplay unit is noted as the “display unit 22 and display unit 32”.

(4) The case that one terminal is used as the supplier terminal 2 and/orthe consumer terminal 3: one terminal is noted as the “supplier terminal2 and/or consumer terminal 3”, one operation unit is noted as the“operation unit 21 and/or operation unit 31”, and one display unit isnoted as the “display unit 22 and/or display unit 32”.

[For User of Terminal]

In the processing procedure indicated below, according to a kind ofinformation and a procedure, a user of one terminal is noted as (5)-(8)below.

(5) The case that one terminal is the “supplier terminal 2”: the user ofthe terminal is noted as the “supplier”.

(6) The case that one terminal is the “consumer terminal 3”: The user ofthe terminal is noted as the “consumer”.

(7) The case that one terminal is the “supplier terminal 2 and consumerterminal 3”: the user of the terminal is noted as the “supplier andconsumer”.

(8) The case that one terminal is the “supplier terminal 2 and/orconsumer terminal 3”: the user of the terminal is noted as the “supplierand/or consumer”.

[For “Transaction or the Like” ]

In this embodiment, “transaction or the like” indicates formation of astate capable of executing the whole action of performing the transferof commodities and/or the provision of services and/or settlement, andin order to form such a state, acquisition of a state where the consumerusing the consumer terminal 3, the supplier using the supplier terminal2, and the supplier and the consumer using the supplier terminal 2 andthe consumer terminal 3 are capable of information provision and/orinformation exchange to the other consumer and/or the other supplierand/or the other supplier and the consumer.

[Preliminary Procedure 1. Menu Screen Display]

The supplier and the consumer using the matching support system 1Aaccess the matching support device 1 using the supplier terminal 2and/or the consumer terminal 3. When the matching support device 1 has alogin function, the supplier using the supplier terminal 2 and/or theconsumer using the consumer terminal 3 operates the operation unit 21 ofthe supplier terminal 2 and/or the operation unit 31 of the consumerterminal 3 to perform login processing.

By the access and login, at the display unit 22 and/or the display unit32 of the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3, a menuscreen 41 whose conceptual diagram is illustrated in FIG. 8 isdisplayed. On the menu screen 41, buttons for selecting the serviceprovided for the supplier and the consumer by the matching supportdevice 1 and registering and displaying the information required for theservice are displayed.

[Preliminary Procedure 2. Prior Registration]

The supplier or the supplier and the consumer using the matching supportdevice 1 register the resource element information 111 c and/or theresource element information 112 c by using the supplier terminal 2 orthe supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3.

For instance, when the menu screen 41 illustrated in FIG. 8 is displayedat the display unit 22 of the supplier terminal 2 or the display unit 22and the display unit 32 of the supplier terminal 2 and the consumerterminal 3 and a resource element information button 411 (in FIG. 8, thebutton where “provision resource information” is displayed) is tapped, aresource element registration/display selection screen (not shown in thefigure) is displayed. When wanting to newly register the resourceelement to be used as the supply information 111 a, the supplier or thesupplier and the consumer tap a registration button (not shown in thefigure) on the resource element registration/display selection screen(not shown in the figure) to display a registration screen (not shown inthe figure) at the display unit 22 or the display unit 22 and thedisplay unit 32, and register their own resource element that can beused as the supply information 111 a to the matching support device 1 asthe resource element information 111 c (see FIG. 2).

In the meantime, when the supplier or the supplier and the consumer tapa display button (not shown in the figure) on the resource elementregistration/selection display screen (not shown in the figure), aresource element list screen 42 whose conceptual diagram is illustratedin FIG. 9 is displayed at the display unit 22 of the supplier terminal 2or the display unit 22 and the display unit 32 of the supplier terminal2 and the consumer terminal 3. On the resource element list screen 42,supply resource element titles which are names of individual supplyresource elements (displayed as “supply (resource contents)” in FIG. 9)to be presented by the supplier or the supplier and the consumer, thatare registered by the individual suppliers or the individual suppliersand consumers, are displayed. For instance, in FIG. 9, six supplyresource element titles 421, 422, . . . 426 are displayed.

In the meantime, for instance, on the resource elementregistration/display selection screen (not shown in the figure), whenwanting to newly register the resource element to be used as the demandinformation 112 a, the consumer or the supplier and the consumer tap theregistration button (not shown in the figure) on the resource elementregistration/display selection screen (not shown in the figure) todisplay the registration screen (not shown in the figure) at the displayunit 32 or the display unit 22 and the display unit 32, and registertheir own resource element that can be used as the demand information112 a to the matching support device 1 as the resource elementinformation 112 c (see FIG. 2).

Then, when the consumer or the supplier and the consumer tap the displaybutton (not shown in the figure) on the resource elementregistration/selection display screen (not shown in the figure), theresource element list screen 42 whose conceptual diagram is illustratedin FIG. 9 is displayed at the display unit 32 of the consumer terminal 3or the display unit 22 and the display unit 32 of the supplier terminal2 and the consumer terminal 3. In this case, on the resource elementlist screen 42, demand resource element titles which are names ofindividual demand resource elements (displayed as “demand (demandcontents)” in FIG. 9) to be presented by the consumer or the supplierand the consumer, that are registered by the individual consumers or theindividual suppliers and consumers, are displayed. For instance, in FIG.9, two demand resource element titles 427 and 428 are displayed.

FIG. 9 illustrates the state of displaying the supply resource elementtitles 421, 422, . . . 426 and the demand resource element titles 427and 428 together on one resource element list screen 42 as a result ofregistering both of the demand resource elements registered as theresource element information 112 c and the supply resource elementsregistered as the resource element information 111 c to be presented byone supplier and consumer to the matching support device 1. However,when the user of the terminal is the supplier and only the resourceelement information 111 c that can be used as the supply information 111a is registered on the registration screen (not shown in the figure)displayed at the display unit 22 of the supplier terminal 2, only thesupply resource element titles 421, 422, . . . 426 are displayed on oneresource element list screen 42 illustrated in FIG. 9. Also, when theuser of the terminal is the consumer and only the resource elementinformation 112 c that can be used as the demand information 112 a isregistered on the registration screen (not shown in the figure)displayed at the display unit 32 of the consumer terminal 3, only thedemand resource element titles 427 and 428 are displayed on one resourceelement list screen 42 illustrated in FIG. 9.

For instance, when the supply resource element title 426 at the bottomis tapped on the resource element list screen 42 illustrated in FIG. 9,a supply resource element individual information screen 43 whoseconceptual diagram is illustrated in FIG. 10 is displayed at the displayunit 22 of the supplier terminal 2. On the supply resource elementindividual information screen 43, resource element detailed information431 which is detailed information (detailed information of a rentalconference room in the case of FIG. 10) of the resource elementinformation 111 c that can be used as the supply information 111 a ofthe matching is displayed. The resource element detailed information 431is composed of invariable information 432 which is information basicallywithout the need of changes and variable information 433 which changeswith a transition of the time. When wanting to correct contents of theresource element detailed information 431, the supplier taps acorrection button 434 of the supply resource element individualinformation screen 43 to display a resource element correction screen(not shown in the figure) at the display unit 22, and correctsinformation contents.

On the other hand, when wanting to perform the matching as the supplyinformation 111 a by the contents of the resource element detailedinformation 431, the supplier taps an information registration button435 (the button where “supply” is displayed in FIG. 10) of the supplyresource element individual information screen 43. When the informationregistration button 435 is tapped, the supply information 111 agenerated by the information (that is, the resource element information111 c) displayed in the resource element detailed information 431 isregistered to the matching support device 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 andhandled as the object of the matching in step S1 and step S2 describedlater.

Also, when the demand resource element titles 427 and 428 are tapped onthe resource element list screen 42 illustrated in FIG. 9, a demandresource element individual information screen (not shown in the figure)is displayed at the display unit 22, and on the demand resource elementindividual information screen (not shown in the figure), resourceelement detailed information which is the detailed information of theresource element information 112 c that can be used as the demandinformation 112 a of the matching is displayed. When an informationregistration button (not shown in the figure) of the demand resourceelement individual information screen (not shown in the figure) istapped, the demand information 112 a generated by the resource elementdetailed information (that is, the resource element information 112 c)displayed on the demand resource element individual information screen(not shown in the figure) is registered to the matching support device 1and handled as the object of the matching in step S1 and step S2described later.

[Preliminary Procedure 3. Schedule Registration to Scheduler]

The supplier uses the supplier terminal 2, the consumer uses theconsumer terminal 3, and the supplier and the consumer use the supplierterminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 to register the informationrelated to their own schedule to the matching support device 1 as theschedule information 111 b and 112 b (see FIG. 2).

For instance, when the menu screen 41 illustrated in FIG. 8 is displayedat the display unit 22 and/or the display unit 32 of the supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 and a schedule button 412 istapped, a weekly schedule display screen 44 whose conceptual diagram isillustrated in FIG. 11 or a daily schedule display screen 45 whoseconceptual diagram is illustrated in FIG. 12 is displayed.

On the weekly schedule display screen 44 illustrated in FIG. 11, aweekly schedule of the consumer and/or the supplier is displayed. On thedaily schedule display screen 45 illustrated in FIG. 12, a dailyschedule of the consumer and/or the supplier is displayed. Further, atthe display unit 32 of the consumer terminal 3, a monthly scheduledisplay screen 55 for displaying a monthly schedule, that is illustratedin FIG. 22, can be displayed as well. On the weekly schedule displayscreen 44 and the daily schedule display screen 45, as illustrated inFIG. 11 and FIG. 12, a display unit switching button 441 for switchingthe screen to be displayed at the display unit 32 to the monthlyschedule display screen 55, the weekly schedule display screen 44 andthe daily schedule display screen 45 in turns, and first movementbuttons 442 and 442 and second movement buttons 443 and 443 for moving amonth, a week and a day to be displayed at the display unit 32 back andforth are displayed. Also, though not shown in FIG. 22, these buttons441, 442, 442, 443 and 443 are displayed on the monthly schedule displayscreen 55 as well. Also, though not shown in the figure, the monthlyschedule display screen 55 can be displayed at the display unit 22 ofthe supplier terminal 2 and the display unit 22 and the display unit 32of the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3.

On the weekly schedule display screen 44 illustrated in FIG. 11 and thedaily schedule display screen 45 illustrated in FIG. 12, a new scheduleregistration button 444 (the button where “new” is displayed in FIG. 11and FIG. 12) is displayed. Also, though not shown in FIG. 22, the samenew schedule registration button 444 is displayed also on the monthlyschedule display screen 55. When the new schedule registration button444 is tapped at the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3,a schedule registration screen (not shown in the figure) is displayed atthe display unit 22 and/or the display unit 32. When the supplier and/orthe consumer inputs a new schedule (for instance, the contents,execution time and execution location or the like of the schedule) onthe schedule registration screen (not shown in the figure) and taps aregistration button (not shown in the figure), the inputted new scheduleis registered to the schedule management unit 15 of the matching supportdevice 1, recorded as the schedule information 111 b and/or the scheduleinformation 112 b, and also displayed on the monthly schedule displayscreen 55 illustrated in FIG. 22, the weekly schedule display screen 44illustrated in FIG. 11 or the daily schedule display screen 45illustrated in FIG. 12 at the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumerterminal 3.

On the schedule registration screen (not shown in the figure) displayedat the display unit 22 and/or the display unit 32 of the supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3, a matching desire inputcolumn (not shown in the figure) for performing arbitrary input whendetermining the contents of the new schedule to be registered on thebasis of the matching is displayed in a form of a checkbox or the like.The supplier and/or the consumer selects by which of the demandinformation 112 a and the supply information 111 a the matching is to beperformed for the information of the schedule in the matching desireinput column (not shown in the figure).

When the registration button (not shown in the figure) is tapped in thestate that arbitrary selection is made in the matching desire inputcolumn (not shown in the figure), the supply information 111 a and/orthe demand information 112 a generated by the resource elementinformation 111 c and/or the resource element information 112 ccorresponding to the information inputted to the schedule registrationscreen (not shown in the figure) (that is, the resource elementinformation 111 c and/or the resource element information 112 ccorresponding to the schedule information 111 b and/or the scheduleinformation 112 b) is registered to the matching support device 1illustrated in FIG. 1 and handled as the object of the matching in stepS1 and step S2 described later.

Also, when the schedule information 111 b and/or the scheduleinformation 112 b (see FIG. 2) is registered in the state that a checkis entered to the matching desire input column (not shown in thefigure), the schedule information 111 b and/or the schedule information112 b is displayed together with supply information matching associationdisplay 445 indicating that the supply information 111 a is generatedand the matching is being performed, that is illustrated in FIG. 11, anddemand information matching association display 446 indicating that thedemand information 112 a is generated and the matching is beingperformed, that is illustrated in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, by the resourceelement information 111 c and/or the resource element information 112 ccorresponding to the information displayed on the monthly scheduledisplay screen 55 (see FIG. 22), the weekly schedule display screen 44(see FIG. 11) or the daily schedule display screen 45 (see FIG. 12)displayed at the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3.

For instance, on the weekly schedule display screen 44 displayed at thedisplay unit 22 and the display unit 32 of the supplier terminal 2 andthe consumer terminal 3, whose conceptual diagram is illustrated in FIG.11, the demand information matching association display 446 is displayedin arbitrary schedules 447 and 448 to perform the matching by the demandinformation 112 a, and the supply information matching associationdisplay 445 is displayed in an arbitrary schedule 449 to perform thematching by the supply information 111 a. Also, on the daily scheduledisplay screen 45 whose conceptual diagram is illustrated in FIG. 12,the arbitrary schedules 447 and 448 to perform the matching by thedemand information 112 a displayed at the display unit 32 of theconsumer terminal 3 are displayed, and the demand information matchingassociation display 446 is displayed together with the schedules 447 and448.

The supply information matching association display 445 and the demandinformation matching association display 446 are displayed in visuallydifferent forms. For instance, the supply information matchingassociation display 445 is displayed in blue and the demand informationmatching association display 446 is displayed in red.

While the weekly schedule display screen 44 illustrates the state ofbeing displayed at the display unit 22 and the display unit 32 of thesupplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 in FIG. 11, and thedaily schedule display screen 45 illustrates the state of beingdisplayed at the display unit 32 of the consumer terminal 3 in FIG. 12,the monthly schedule display screen 55, the weekly schedule displayscreen 44, and the daily schedule display screen 45 are displayed at thedisplay unit 22 and/or the display unit 32 of the supplier terminal 2and/or the consumer terminal 3. Specifically, when the monthly scheduledisplay screen 55, the weekly schedule display screen 44, and the dailyschedule display screen 45 are displayed at the display unit 22 of thesupplier terminal 2, the supply information matching association display445 is displayed together with the arbitrary schedule (the scheduleregistered as the schedule information 111 b (see FIG. 2), for instance)that is turned to the object of the matching as the supply information111 a. When the monthly schedule display screen 55, the weekly scheduledisplay screen 44, and the daily schedule display screen 45 aredisplayed at the display unit 32 of the consumer terminal 3, the demandinformation matching association display 446 is displayed together withthe arbitrary schedule (schedule registered as the schedule information112 b (see FIG. 2), for instance) that is turned to the object of thematching as the demand information 112 a (see FIG. 12). When the monthlyschedule display screen 55, the weekly schedule display screen 44, andthe daily schedule display screen 45 are displayed at the display unit22 and the display unit 32 of the supplier terminal 2 and the consumerterminal 3, the supply information matching association display 445 isdisplayed together with the arbitrary schedule (the schedule registeredas the schedule information 111 b and/or the schedule information 112 b(see FIG. 2), for instance) to perform the matching by the supplyinformation 111 a, and the demand information matching associationdisplay 446 is displayed together with the arbitrary schedule to performthe matching by the demand information 112 a (see FIG. 11).

After the preliminary procedures above, processing of step S1 to step S9illustrated in FIG. 4 is performed. However, at least one procedure of[preliminary procedure 1] to [preliminary procedure 3] may be performedin step S1 and/or step S2 described later.

For the processing indicated in step S1 to step S9 illustrated below,depending on difference in processing contents of step S1 and step S2,roughly two operation procedures are considered. They will be describedbelow as <operation procedure 1> and <operation procedure 2>.

<Operation Procedure 1: The Case that Registration from the SupplierTerminal 2 is Performed First>

It is a procedure of starting the matching by registering the supplyinformation 111 a from the supplier terminal 2 in step S1 andregistering the demand information 112 a from the consumer terminal 3 instep S2. The operation procedure will be described below.

[Step S1 (Arrow A1). Preparation/Storage of Information]

For instance, when the information registration button 435 of the supplyresource element individual information screen 43 is tapped in[preliminary procedure 2] or when the schedule information 111 b and/orthe schedule information 112 b is registered in the state that a checkis entered to the matching desire input column (not shown in the figure)in [preliminary procedure 3], the supply information 111 a is generatedand registered on the basis of the resource element information 111 c.

In this case, for instance, at the display unit 22 of the supplierterminal 2, a supply information confirmation screen 46 illustrated inFIG. 13 is displayed. The information displayed on the supplyinformation confirmation screen 46 is the information registered as theresource element information 111 c. On the supply informationconfirmation screen 46, the information registered as the supplyinformation 111 a in [preliminary procedure 2] and [preliminaryprocedure 3] by the supplier is displayed in a desired condition displaycolumn 461. For instance, in FIG. 13, the information of a workingdesired date, the working desired time and a working desired location orthe like, which is the information for requesting a part-time job (thatis, supplying labor), is displayed in the desired condition displaycolumn 461.

Depending on a kind of the supply information 111 a, in addition to theinformation exemplified in the desired condition display column 461 inFIG. 13, the information such as a name of the supplier, a kind andcontents of an event, details and time of the event, a price of theevent and an “information time limit” which is the time information ofan “arbitrary period” for turning the information to the object of thematching is displayed. The “information time limit” corresponds to the“(period 3) matching period” described above, and specifically, thestart time, end time and duration or the like of the matching period aredisplayed. Also, in addition to the information of the “information timelimit”, the information corresponding to the “(period 1) supply elementperiod” or the “(period 2) information reception period” described abovemay be displayed.

For instance, when the supplier is a rental agent of conference rooms,in the desired condition display column 461, the information such as anagent name, the contents of the event that is “the rental of theconference room”, the details and time of the event represented by thenumber and size of the conference rooms, room types such as“Japanese-style room” and “Western-style room” and a rental time zone orthe like, price information such as a rental charge for each room andeach hour, and the “information time limit” is displayed.

Also, for instance, when the supplier is a manager or an employee of arestaurant or a hotel and wants to supply a plan of a dinner set or adiner show or the like provided in the restaurant or the hotel, on thesupply information confirmation screen 46, the information such as anagent name, the contents of the event that is “reservation of a meal”,the details and time of the event represented by a menu of the meal, thetime and date of dining, the number of persons to dine or the like, anda charge of each menu is displayed. When correcting the contentsdisplayed on the supply information confirmation screen 46, the suppliertaps a correction button 462 to display a correction screen (not shownin the figure) at the display unit 32, and corrects the information.When performing the matching by the contents displayed on the supplyinformation confirmation screen 46, when the supplier taps an executionbutton 463 (in FIG. 14, the button where “re-retrieval” is displayed),the information displayed on the supply information confirmation screen46 is recorded in the information recording unit 11 of the matchingsupport device 1, and stored.

In such a manner, the registration of the resource element information111 c is completed, and the supply information 111 a generated andregistered on the basis of the registered resource element information111 c can be turned to the object of the matching (an arrow A1 in stepS1).

[Step S2 (Arrow A2). Request Registration]

For instance, when the information registration button (not shown in thefigure) of the demand resource element individual information screen(not shown in the figure) is tapped in [preliminary procedure 2] or whenthe schedule information 111 b and/or the schedule information 112 b isregistered in the state that a check is entered to the matching desireinput column (not shown in the figure) in [preliminary procedure 3], thedemand information 112 a is generated and registered. The demandinformation 112 a may be generated on the basis of the registeredresource element information 112 c.

In this case, for instance, at the display unit 32 of the consumerterminal 3, a demand information confirmation screen 47 illustrated inFIG. 14 is displayed. On the demand information confirmation screen 47,a desired condition display column 471 for displaying desired conditionssuch as a date, the time, an information kind, a location, a neareststation, and a seating capacity or the like, that are inputted on adesired condition input screen (not shown in the figure), is displayed.In the displayed desired condition display column 471, an informationtime limit 472 which is the time information of the “arbitrary period”for turning the information to the object of the matching, that isinputted on the desired condition input screen (not shown in thefigure), is also displayed. The “information time limit” corresponds tothe “(period 6) matching period” described above, and specifically, thestart time, end time and duration or the like of the matching period aredisplayed. Also, in addition to the information of the “information timelimit”, the information corresponding to the “(period 4) demand elementperiod” or the “(period 5) information reception period” described abovemay be displayed. The consumer inputs desired conditions to the desiredcondition display column 471. When correcting the contents displayed onthe demand information confirmation screen 47, the consumer taps thecorrection button 462 to display the correction screen (not shown in thefigure) at the display unit 22, and corrects the information. Whenperforming the matching by the contents displayed on the demandinformation confirmation screen 47, when the consumer taps the executionbutton 463, the data displayed in the desired condition display column471 is transmitted from the consumer terminal 3 to the matching supportdevice 1 as the demand information 112 a from the consumer, and isrecorded in the information recording unit 11.

In such a manner, request registration is completed, and the registeredinformation is turned to the object of the matching as the demandinformation 112 a (an arrow A2 in step S2). That is, in this embodiment,the matching unit 12 of the matching support device 1 performs thematching on the basis of a request of the schedule management unit 15.

[Step S3. Immediate Matching]

When the request is registered, the matching unit 12 of the matchingsupport device 1 performs immediate matching (step S3). Specifically,the trigger unit 13, with the request registration as a trigger,acquires the supply information 111 a adapted to the matching from thesupply information 111 a registered and recorded in the informationrecording unit 11, and makes the matching unit 12 immediately performthe matching with the demand information 112 a for which the request isregistered. In this case, the matching unit 12 performs the matchingbetween the supply information 111 a and the demand information 112 a informs indicated in the following (matching example 1) and (matchingexample 2) or the like, for the demand information 112 a and theindividual supply information 111 a for instance.

(Matching Example 1) Keyword Matching

Keywords such as dates and time, locations and categories included inthe supply information 111 a and the demand information 112 a arecompared with each other, and whether or not the matching is establishedis determined depending on whether or not they match or whether or notthey approximate.

Specifically, for instance, a comparison is made for items indicated inthe following (condition example 1) to (condition example 4), andwhether the condition of the demand and the condition of the supply areadapted is determined.

Condition Example 1

Do the “category” of the supply information 111 a and the “category” ofthe demand information 112 a match?

Condition Example 2

Are the “date” and “time zone” of the supply information 111 a the sameas the “date” and “time zone” of the demand information 112 a orincluding them?

Condition Example 3

Are the “location” and “nearest station” of the supply information 111 athe same as the “location” and “nearest station” of the demandinformation 112 a?

Condition Example 4

Is the “seating capacity” of the supply information 111 a equal to orlarger than the “seating capacity” of the demand information 112 a?

(Matching Example 2) Group Matching

The plurality of suppliers and the plurality of consumers are grouped orhierarchized to form arbitrary supplier group and consumer group, andthe supply information 111 a and the demand information 112 a as thewhole group are formed. Then, by comparing the supply information 111 aand the demand information 112 a, whether or not the matching isestablished is determined. As a specific method of the matching,similarly to the (matching example 1), the items described in the(condition example 1) to (condition example 4) are compared.

[Specific Processing Contents of Matching Support System 1A, inMatching]

Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 5 to FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B, specificprocessing contents of the matching support system 1A in the matchingwill be described. In these figures, the first numeral in a flowchartcoincides with a step number of the time chart illustrated in FIG. 4,and indicates that the processing is related to each other. Forinstance, it is indicated that both of the processing proceduresindicated in “S3-1” and S3-2” in the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 6Bare the processing related to “S3” of the time chart in FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a main part of the procedures of thematching. In the figure, the figure describes both of the processingprocedure of performing the matching in step S3 with the registration ofthe demand information 112 a in step S2 as a trigger from the state thatthe supply information 111 a is registered first in step S1 (step S1 andstep S2 in <operation procedure 1>, for instance) as <case 1>, and theprocessing procedure of performing the matching in step S3 with theregistration of the supply information 111 a in step S2 as a triggerfrom the state that the demand information 112 a is registered first instep S1 (step S1 and step S2 in <operation procedure 2> to be describedlater, for instance) as <case 2>.

In FIG. 5, for the convenience of the description, the processingperformed only in <case 1> and the processing performed in common in<case 1> and <case 2>, the step numbers are noted the same as the timechart in FIG. 4 (for instance, the descriptions of “step S3-1” and “stepS3-2” in the flowchart in FIG. 5 indicate that they are the processingrelated to “step S3” of the time chart in FIG. 3). For the processingperformed only in <case 2>, the step number is indicated by notation forwhich “′” is attached to the step number of the time chart in FIG. 4(for instance, the descriptions of “step S3′-1” and “step S3′-2” in theflowchart in FIG. 5 indicate that they are the processing related to“step S3” of the time chart in FIG. 4).

First, <case 1> will be described. After step S1, when a demand requestis registered from the consumer terminal 3 or the supplier terminal 2and the consumer terminal 3 (step S2), the matching unit 12 in FIG. 1acquires the demand information 112 a as trigger origin information(step S3-1), and retrieves the supply information 111 a (step S3-2). Thematching unit 12 in FIG. 1 determines a matching degree of the demandinformation 112 a and the supply information 111 a that are comparisonobjects with each other (step S3-3), determines reliability (step S3-4),and determines a cost (step S3-5). When both match (“Yes” in step S3-6),the matching unit 12 performs result processing on the basis of amatching result (step S3-7, to be described later), and when they do notmatch (“No” in step S3-6), the result processing is not performed.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, the similar processing is performed also insteps S5 and S6 (change of registration information and continuousmatching) to be described later. However, in the case of steps S5 andS6, in addition to the case of retrieving the supply information 111 awith the demand information 112 a as the trigger origin information(steps S5, S6-1, and S6-2), the case of retrieving the demandinformation 112 a with the supply information 111 a as the triggerorigin information (steps S5′, S6′-1, and S6′-2) is also possible.

Next, <case 2> will be described. After step S1, when a supply requestis registered from the supplier terminal 2 or the supplier terminal 2and the consumer terminal 3 (step S2′), the matching unit 12 in FIG. 1acquires the supply information 111 a as trigger origin information(step S3′-1), and retrieves the demand information 112 a (step S3′-2).The following processing is the same as <case 1> (steps S3-3, S3-4,S3-5, S3-6, and S3-7).

Also, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the similar processing is performed alsoin steps S5 and S6 (the change of the registration information and thecontinuous matching) to be described later. However, in the case ofsteps S5 and S6, in addition to the case of retrieving the demandinformation 112 a with the supply information 111 a as the triggerorigin information (steps S5′, S6′-1, and S6′-2), the case of retrievingthe supply information 111 a with the demand information 112 a as thetrigger origin information (steps S5, S6-1, and S6-2) is also possible.

FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B are diagrams schematically illustrating thetransition of the data in the matching performed with the demandinformation 112 a as a trigger. A display method of the step numbers inthe figures is the same as the flowchart in FIG. 5. Scheduleregistration of the schedule information 112 b is performed in theconsumer terminal 3 or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal3 (the preliminary procedure 3 in FIG. 6A). After the processing of stepS1 (see FIG. 4), in the consumer terminal 3 or the supplier terminal 2and the consumer terminal 3, when the demand request is registered (stepS2 in FIG. 6A) from the schedule registration screen (not shown in thefigure) through the weekly schedule display screen 44 (see FIG. 11) orthe daily schedule display screen 45 (see FIG. 12), arbitrary scheduleinformation 112 b illustrated in (a) in FIG. 6A and arbitrary demandinformation 112 a generated by the demand request registered, which isillustrated in (b) in FIG. 6A, are linked (associated). In the figure,“new employee welcome party” 112 b 1 included in the scheduleinformation 112 b and “restaurant” 112 a 1 and “karaoke (meaning a shopproviding a service of letting a customer sing songs along instrumentalaccompaniment)” 112 a 2 included in the demand information 112 a (whichis a place of the new employee welcome party) are linked. Also, asillustrated in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B, the “restaurant” 112 a 1 and the“karaoke” 112 a 2 have the time information 112 a 13.

When the matching is performed in this state (step S3-1 in FIG. 6B), the“restaurant” 112 a 1 included in the demand information 112 a and“eating place B” 111 a 1 included in the supply information 111 a, whichis illustrated in (c) in FIG. 6B, and for which conditions of the dateand the time and contents are adapted to the “restaurant” 112 a 1 (thematching is established), are linked. As shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B,matching is performed for “eating place B” 111 a 1 in a state where timeinformation 111 a 13 is included. That is, in the matching, the matchingbetween the time information 112 a 13 of the “restaurant” 112 a 1 andthe time information 111 a 13 of the “eating place B” 111 a 1 isperformed as well.

Then, the “eating place B” 111 a 1 and the matching result information111 aa illustrated in (d) in FIG. 6B are linked, and the matching resultinformation 111 aa is displayed/notified to the supplier terminal 2and/or the consumer terminal 3 (step S3-2 in FIG. 6B).

The matching result information 111 aa is linked with scheduleinformation 111 b 2 illustrated in (e) in FIG. 6B. From the above, thedemand information 112 a is generated on the basis of the information ofthe schedule information 112 b registered by the consumer or thesupplier and the consumer, and the result of performing the matchingwith the supply information 111 a is reflected on the scheduleinformation 111 b of the supplier or the supplier and the consumer.

As illustrated in the figure, the similar processing is performed insteps S5 and S6 as well (step S5 in FIG. 6A, and steps S6-1 and S6-2 inFIG. 6B).

FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B are diagrams schematically illustrating thetransition of the data in the matching performed with the supplyinformation 111 a as a trigger. The display method of the step numbersin the figures is the same as the flowchart in FIG. 5.

First, in the supplier terminal 2 or the supplier terminal 2 and theconsumer terminal 3, the resource element information 111 c illustratedin (f) in FIG. 7A is registered (see [preliminary procedure 2]), and theschedule information 111 b illustrated in (g) in FIG. 7A is registered(preliminary procedure 3 in FIG. 7A). After the processing of step S1(see FIG. 4), when the supply request is registered (step S2′ in FIG.7A) from the schedule registration screen (not shown in the figure)through the weekly schedule display screen 44 (see FIG. 11) or the dailyschedule display screen 45 (see FIG. 12) or the like, on the basis ofarbitrary resource element information 111 c and arbitrary scheduleinformation 111 b, the supply information 111 a illustrated in (h) inFIG. 7A is generated. In FIG. 7A, “eating place B” 111 c 1 as theresource element information 111 c illustrated in (f) in FIG. 7A and“12/5/2, 18:00-24:00” 111 b 0 which is the information related to thetime of the schedule information 111 b illustrated in (g) in FIG. 7A areacquired, and they are linked. Also, the figure illustrates the case ofgenerating the “eating place B” 111 a 1 as the supply information 111 agenerated by the supply request registration, having the “12/5/2,18:00-24:00” 111 b 0 as the time information 111 a 13, that isillustrated in (h) in FIG. 7A, on the basis of the acquired information.In this state, the “12/5/2, 18:00-24:00” 111 b 0 illustrated in (g) inFIG. 7A and the “eating place B” 111 a 1 illustrated in (h) in FIG. 7Aare linked.

Then, the arbitrary supply information 111 a illustrated in (h) in FIG.7A is matched with the arbitrary demand information 112 a illustrated in(i) in FIG. 7B (step S3′-1 in FIG. 7B), and linked. In the figure, the“eating place B” 111 a 1 included in the supply information 111 aillustrated in (h) in FIG. 7A and the “restaurant” 112 a 1 included inthe demand information 112 a illustrated in (i) in FIG. 7B, for whichthe conditions of the date, time and contents are adapted to the “eatingplace B” 111 a 1 (the matching is established), are linked. Then, the“restaurant” 112 a 1 and the matching result information 112 aaillustrated in (j) in FIG. 7B are linked, and the matching resultinformation 112 aa is displayed/notified to the supplier terminal 2and/or the consumer terminal 3 (step S3′-2). The matching resultinformation 112 aa and the “new employee welcome party” 112 b 1 includedin the schedule information 112 b illustrated in (k) in FIG. 7B arelinked. Thus, the supply information 111 a is generated on the basis ofthe information of the schedule information 111 b registered by thesupplier or the supplier and the consumer, and the result of performingthe matching with the demand information 112 a is reflected on theschedule information 112 b of the consumer or the supplier and theconsumer.

As illustrated in FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B, the similar processing isperformed also in steps S5′ and S6′ (step S5′ in FIG. 7A, and stepsS6′-1 and S6′-2 in FIG. 7B).

In FIG. 6B and FIG. 7B, the pieces of the matching result information111 aa and 112 aa are each illustrated as one piece of data, however,the plurality of pieces of the matching result information 111 aa and112 aa may be generated since they are generated every time the matchingis established. Also, in FIG. 6B and FIG. 7B, the pieces of the matchingresult information 111 aa and 112 aa indicate states generatedrespectively on the side of the supply information 111 a and on the sideof the demand information 112 a, however, a configuration may be suchthat the matching result information 111 aa is generated only on theside of the supply information 111 a or such that the matching resultinformation 112 aa is generated only on the side of the demandinformation 112 a.

When the matching in the matching unit 12 in FIG. 1 in step S3 isestablished by the above procedure, the result transmission unit 14 inFIG. 1 transmits, to the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal3, the result of the matching (that is, information on whether or notthe matching is established, and with which supply information 111 a thematching is established or the like). FIG. 15 is a conceptual diagram ofa matching result new arrival information screen 48 to be displayed atthe supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3. As illustrated inthe figure, on the matching result new arrival information screen 48, ofthe results of the matching performed on the basis of one, two or more(two, in this case) request registrations (step S2 in FIG. 4) from theconsumer terminal 3 or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal3, the ones for which the matching is established are displayed as twoconsumer side matching result lists 481 and 482. Also, on the matchingresult new arrival information screen 48 illustrated in the figure, ofthe results of the matching performed on the basis of the registrationof one, two or more (one, in this case) supply resource elements fromthe supplier terminal 2 or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumerterminal 3 in the preparation/storage of the information (step S1 inFIG. 4) and the request registration (step S2 in FIG. 4), the ones forwhich the date, time and contents are adapted (the matching isestablished) are displayed as one supplier side matching result list483. Also when the processing of step S5 and step S6 in FIG. 4 isperformed, the result transmission unit 14 performs the similarprocessing, and as illustrated in FIG. 15, on the matching result newarrival information screen 48, consumer side screen transition buttons484 and 485 are displayed on the consumer side matching result lists 481and 482, and a supplier side screen transition button 486 is displayedon the supplier side matching result list 483, respectively.

Also, in FIG. 15, while the matching result new arrival informationscreen 48 is displayed at the display unit 22 and the display unit 32 ofthe supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3, the matching resultnew arrival information screen 48 is displayed also at the display unit22 of the supplier terminal 2 or the display unit 32 of the consumerterminal 3.

Specifically, when displayed at the display unit 22 of the supplierterminal 2 for instance, on the matching result new arrival informationscreen 48, only the supplier side matching result list 483 and thesupplier side screen transition button 486 illustrated in FIG. 15 aredisplayed. Also, for instance, when displayed at the display unit 32 ofthe consumer terminal 3, on the matching result new arrival informationscreen 48, only the consumer side matching result lists 481 and 482 andthe consumer side screen transition buttons 484 and 485 illustrated inFIG. 15 are displayed. While the above description illustrates the stateof displaying the matching result new arrival information screen 48 atthe display unit 22 and/or the display unit 32 of the supplier terminal2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 as the result of performing thematching by the processing in step S3, the matching result new arrivalinformation screen 48 is displayed at the display unit 22 and/or thedisplay unit 32 of the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal3 also when the matching is performed by the processing in step S5 andstep S6 to be described later.

For instance, when the consumer side screen transition button 484 istapped in the state that the matching result new arrival informationscreen 48 is displayed at the display unit 22 and the display unit 32 ofthe supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3, as illustrated inFIG. 15, the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 are tofunction as the consumer terminal 3 in the procedures after step S3(however, when the supplier side screen transition button 486 is tappedon the matching result new arrival information screen 48 displayed atthe terminal functioning only as the consumer terminal 3, the consumerterminal 3 continuously functions as the consumer terminal 3 in theprocedures after step S3 (see FIG. 4)), and as illustrated in theconceptual diagram in FIG. 17, an event unit schedule display screen 50is displayed at the display unit 32 of the consumer terminal 3. On theevent unit schedule display screen 50, a matching result list 501similar to the matching result new arrival information screen 48 (seeFIG. 15) is displayed. On the event unit schedule display screen 50 inthe figure, the state of displaying a holding time zone, participants'names, and holding location or the like of the conference at a scheduledisplay part 502 is illustrated. Also, “Suzuki”, “Abe”, “Sonoda” and“Yamashita” indicated in FIG. 17 all indicate last names of individuals.

When a screen transition button 503 is tapped on the event unit scheduledisplay screen 50, an event unit matching result list screen 52 whoseconceptual diagram is illustrated in FIG. 19 is displayed. On the eventunit matching result list screen 52, differently from the event unitschedule display screen 50 (see FIG. 17), only a matching result list521 is displayed. On the event unit matching result list screen 52 inFIG. 19, each display of the matching result list 521 is a tap button.For instance, when display 522 at the top in the matching result list521 in FIG. 19 is tapped, the matching result individual informationscreen 54 whose conceptual diagram is illustrated in FIG. 21 isdisplayed. On the matching result individual information screen 54,detailed information 541 of the display 522 at the top of the matchingresult list 521, which is tapped on the event unit matching result listscreen 52 in FIG. 19, is displayed. The consumer using the consumerterminal 3 looks at the information in FIG. 19 and FIG. 21, and canselect a candidate preferred event (that is, selection of a conferenceroom or the like).

In the meantime, for instance, when the supplier side screen transitionbutton 486 of the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 istapped on the matching result new arrival information screen 48illustrated in FIG. 15, the supplier terminal 2 and the consumerterminal 3 are to function as the supplier terminal 2 in the proceduresafter step S3 (however, when the supplier side screen transition button486 is tapped on the matching result new arrival information screen 48displayed at the terminal functioning only as the supplier terminal 2,the supplier terminal 2 continuously functions as the supplier terminal2 in the procedures after step S3), an event unit schedule displayscreen 49 illustrated in FIG. 16 is displayed at the display unit 22 ofthe supplier terminal 2, and a schedule display part 491, a screentransition button 492, and a matching result list 493 are displayed.Also, “Suzuki” indicated in FIG. 16 is a last name of an individual and“Suzuki Taro” is a full name of the individual. When the screentransition button 492 is tapped, an event unit matching result listscreen 51 illustrated in FIG. 18 is displayed, and only a matchingresult list 511 is displayed. For instance, when display 512 at the topof the matching result list 511 in FIG. 18 is tapped, a matching resultindividual information screen 53 illustrated in FIG. 20 is displayed,and detailed information 531 is displayed. The supplier looks at theinformation in FIG. 18 and FIG. 20, and can select the candidatepreferred event.

When there is not the supply information 111 a adapted to the demandinformation 112 a as the result of performing the matching in step S3,the demand information 112 a is recorded in the information recordingunit 11. A recording period is, in the case of the demand information112 a, until the date and time displayed at an information time limit472 (see FIG. 14) of the demand information confirmation screen 47, oruntil the establishment of a transaction (to be described later).However, when periods corresponding to the “(period 4) demand elementperiod” and “(period 5) information reception period” described aboveare set, a condition may be such that the recording period is until theend of the periods. In the case of the supply information 111 a, therecording period is until the establishment of a transaction (to bedescribed later), however, when the information time limit is set in[step S1], the condition may be such that the recording period is untilthe end of the information time period, and when the periodscorresponding to the “(period 1) supply element period” and “(period 2)information reception period” described above are set, the condition maybe such that the recording period is until the end of the periods.

The result transmission unit 14 transmits the result of the immediatematching to the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 whetherthe matching is established or not established (step S3). Thus, thesupplier and the consumer can quickly confirm the result of thematching, and follow a transaction procedure (for instance, a procedurefor establishing a transaction when the matching is established, or aprocedure for correcting contents of the demand information 112 a andthe supply information 111 a when the matching is not established or thelike) based on the result of the matching. Also, the result transmissionunit 14 can also simplify the processing by transmitting the result ofthe immediate matching only to either one of the supplier terminal 2 andthe consumer terminal 3.

[Step S4. Utilization of Sum-Up Information]

After the immediate matching (step S3) is performed by the requestregistration (step S2) from the consumer terminal 3, the matching unit12 prepares sum-up information by the result of the matching. The sum-upinformation is gathered as the sum-up information (for instance, for thedemand information 112 a and the supply information 111 a regarding thereservation of a rental conference room, the sum-up information obtainedas a result of collecting, for the past fixed period, the data such asthe age, sex and address of the consumer and the supplier who havetransmitted them, and the desired price zone and desired time zone ofthe demand information 112 a and the supply information 111 a or thelike) of the information (for instance, the demand information 112 a andthe supply information 111 a for which the matching is performed withinthe past fixed period in order to reserve the rental conference room)for each kind of services and commodities. The matching unit 12appropriately records the sum-up information as the supply information111 a, the demand information 112 a and the management information 113.The result transmission unit 14 transmits the sum-up information to thesupplier terminal 2 as “needs sum-up information”, and also transmits itto the consumer terminal 3 as “recommendation sum-up information” (stepS4). Thus, the supplier can recognize needs of a market for theinformation for which the supplier himself/herself lets the matching beperformed, examine the supply information 111 a for which the matchingis to be established more easily, and use it for the matchingthereafter. Also, the consumer can recognize the contents and prize zoneor the like of the service that the consumer himself/herself wants to beprovided with. On the basis of the sum-up result, the resulttransmission unit 14 may transmit the “needs sum-up information” to thesupplier terminal 2 only, or may transmit the “recommendation sum-upinformation” to the consumer terminal 3 only.

[Step S5. Change of Registration Information]

It is assumed that addition/updating/deletion of the supply information111 a and/or the demand information 112 a is performed from the supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 to the matching support device1 after the end of the procedures of steps S1-S4 (step S5). It may occurwhen the demand information 112 a and the supply information 111 a forwhich a transaction is not established (to be described later) arerecorded in the information recording unit 11 whether the matching instep S3 is established or not established. Specifically, it includes,for instance, the case when the supply information 111 a and the demandinformation 112 a for which a transaction is not established (to bedescribed later) are present in the information recording unit 11 andthere is the registration of new supply information 111 a by theregistration of a new supply resource element, for which the matching isdesired, from the schedule registration screen (not shown in the figure)displayed at the display unit 22 and/or the display unit 32 of thearbitrary supplier terminal 2 and/or consumer terminal 3 for the supplyinformation 111 a and the demand information 112 a, and the case whenthere is the registration of new demand information 112 a by theregistration of a new demand resource element. Also, it includes, forinstance, the case when, for the already registered supply information111 a and demand information 112 a, the supplier and the consumer whohave registered them update or delete the supply information 111 a andthe demand information 112 a registered by themselves from the scheduleregistration screen (not shown in the figure) displayed at the displayunit 22 and/or the display unit 32 of the supplier terminal 2 and/or theconsumer terminal 3.

[Step S6. Continuous Matching]

When the registration information is changed in step S5, with the changeof the registration information, that is, the addition/updating/deletionof the supply information 111 a or the demand information 112 aperformed from the supplier terminal 2 or the consumer terminal 3, as atrigger, the trigger unit 13 uses the trigger information 113 a, andmakes the matching unit 12 perform the matching between the supplyinformation 111 a and the demand information 112 a (step S6).Specifically, when the supply information 111 a is added/updated fromthe supplier terminal 2 or the demand information 112 a is added/updatedfrom the consumer terminal 3, the matching unit 12 performs the matchingbetween the added/updated supply information 111 a or demand information112 a, and the demand information 112 a and the supply information 111 afor which the matching is not established, and which are recorded in theinformation recording unit 11. On the other hand, when the supplyinformation 111 a is deleted from the supplier terminal 2 or the demandinformation 112 a is deleted from the consumer terminal 3, the matchingunit 12 performs the matching between the demand information 112 a orthe supply information 111 a for which the matching has been establishedwith the deleted supply information 111 a or demand information 112 a,and the demand information 112 a and the supply information 111 a forwhich the matching is not established, and which are recorded in theinformation recording unit 11, again.

The result transmission unit 14 transmits the result of the matching tothe supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 (step S6).Basically, when the matching is performed newly with theaddition/updating of the demand information 112 a from the consumerterminal 3 or the addition/updating of the supply information 111 a fromthe supplier terminal 2 as a trigger, the matching result is transmittedrespectively to the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3which have registered and added/updated the supply information 111 a andthe demand information 112 a that are turned to matching objects. On theother hand, when the matching is performed newly with the deletion ofthe demand information 112 a from the consumer terminal 3 or thedeletion of the supply information 111 a from the supplier terminal 2 asa trigger, the matching result is transmitted respectively to thesupplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 which have registeredthe supply information 111 a and the demand information 112 a turned tothe matching objects. However, a configuration may be such that thematching result is only for the supplier terminal 2 or only for theconsumer terminal 3 which has added/updated the supply information 111 aand the demand information 112 a, a configuration may be such that thematching result is only for the supplier terminal 2 or the consumerterminal 3 which has registered the supply information 111 a or thedemand information 112 a turned to the matching object as a result ofthe addition/updating of the supply information 111 a and the demandinformation 112 a, a configuration may be such that the matching resultis only for the supplier terminal 2 at all times, or a configuration maybe such that the matching result is only for the consumer terminal 3 atall times.

In this way, in the matching support system 1A, the matching can beperformed in a mode similar to an actual negotiation with a human.Especially, by transmitting the result of the matching to both of thesupplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 used by the interestedparties of the matching at all times, the supplier and the consumer areexpected to perform negotiations and condition correction so as toeasily establish the matching while performing the negotiations on thematching support system 1A.

Further, the matching support system 1A may be configured to transmitthe result of the negotiation to the supplier terminal 2 and/or theconsumer terminal 3 used by someone other than the matching interestedparties. In such a manner, by making the supplier and the consumer otherthan the interested parties newly participate in the matching andincreasing the interested parties, it is made possible to more smoothlyand efficiently perform a transaction or the like, and derivation of abetter matching result can be expected.

[Step S7. Repetition]

The information recording unit 11, the matching unit 12, the triggerunit 13, and the result transmission unit 14 repeat the procedures ofstep S4 to step S6 during the information time limit 472 (see FIG. 14)of the demand information 112 a inputted in step S2 (step S7).

That is, the matching unit 12 prepares the sum-up information on thebasis of the result of performing the matching in step S6, and performstransmission of the “needs sum-up information” to the supplier terminal2 and/or the transmission of the “recommendation sum-up information” tothe consumer terminal 3 (step S4).

In the information recording unit 11, when theaddition/updating/deletion of the demand information 112 a by theconsumer terminal 3 or the addition/updating/deletion of the supplyinformation 111 a by the supplier terminal 2 is performed during theinformation time limit of the supply information 111 a and theinformation time limit 472 (see FIG. 14) of the demand information 112 a(step S5), the trigger unit 13, with the addition/updating/deletion ofthe demand information 112 a or the supply information 111 a as atrigger, uses the trigger information 113 a, makes the matching unit 12perform the matching, and transmits the matching result to the supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 (step S6).

Specifically, for instance, every time of receiving information newlypresented at a lower price for the supply information 111 a of theservice or the commodity already presented at an arbitrary price fromthe supplier terminal 2, or information newly presented at a new desiredprice zone including a price zone of a higher amount for the demandinformation 112 a of the service or the commodity already presented inan arbitrary desired price zone from the consumer terminal 3, or thelike, with the reception as a trigger, the matching unit 12 is made toperform the matching (step S5, step S6). However, when the supplyinformation 111 a or the demand information 112 a is added or correctedby the supplier or the consumer tapping the execution button 463 on thesupply information confirmation screen 46 (FIG. 13) or the demandinformation confirmation screen 47 (FIG. 14), the matching unit 12performs the immediate matching similar to step S3.

In the process of step S5 and step S6, the supplier and the consumer canachieve the actual negotiation with a human in a pseudo manner, in thestate of displaying the matching result individual information screens53 and 54 (see FIG. 20 and FIG. 21) or the like at the supplier terminal2 and/or the consumer terminal 3. For instance, the matching resultindividual information screens 53 and 54 (see FIG. 20 and FIG. 21) orthe like are displayed at the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumerterminal 3, a correction screen (not shown in the figure) is displayedat the display unit 22 and/or the display unit 32 by tapping acorrection button 532 (the button where “supply” is displayed in FIG. 20and “demand” is displayed in FIG. 21), and the contents of the supplyinformation 111 a or the demand information 112 a provided by thesupplier or the consumer himself/herself can be corrected. Also, bytapping a comment button 533, a message transmission/reception screen(not shown in the figure) is displayed at the display unit 22 and/or thedisplay unit 32, and a message is transmitted to the arbitrary supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3.

Further, as illustrated in FIG. 20, the matching result individualinformation screen 53 of the supplier terminal 2 is provided with a pushbutton 534. By tapping the push button 534, the supplier can transmit asignal for notifying that there is a strong intention of the matchingfor the arbitrary demand information 112 a displayed on the matchingresult individual information screen 53. When pushing by the push button534 is performed, as illustrated in FIG. 21, push reception display 542is displayed on the matching result individual information screen 54 ofthe consumer terminal 3.

The case of utilizing transmission by the push button 534 includes, forinstance, the case that the demand information 112 a is position offerinformation of “wanting a part-time worker” and the supplier using thesupplier terminal 2 is a job hunter. That is, in this case, when thesupplier finds the position offer information for which the supplierespecially wants to work, the supplier taps the push button 534 as thedisplay of the intention of “especially desiring employment” for theposition offer information. Thus, the supplier can easily display thestrong intention for the matching with the arbitrary demand information112 a, and the consumer can easily recognize the degree of the intentionfor transaction establishment for each supplier.

Every time the matching unit 12 performs the matching, the resulttransmission unit 14 transmits the result of the matching to thesupplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 whether the matchingis established or not established (step S6) Further, every time thematching unit 12 performs the matching, the result transmission unit 14transmits the information similar to that in step S4 to the supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3. By transmitting the result ofthe matching to the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3,an opportunity of transmitting the supply information 111 a and thedemand information 112 a presented by the supplier and the consumerthemselves again as updating information corrected into a form foreasily establishing the matching can be given to the supplier and theconsumer. Therefore, the opportunity of a pseudo transaction negotiationis provided for the consumer and the supplier who perform the matching,and the matching is easily established as the result of the pseudotransaction negotiation.

The result transmission unit 14 is also capable of transmitting theresult of the matching obtained by repeating step S4 to step S6 to thesupplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 satisfying anarbitrary condition, other than the supplier terminal 2 and/or theconsumer terminal 3 which have transmitted the supply information 111 aand the demand information 112 a which are the matching objects. Forinstance, when the supply information 111 a which is the matching objectis related to provision of a rental conference room, the resulttransmission unit 14 is capable of transmitting the information relatedto the result of the matching (information such as the desired date andtime, the desired seating capacity of the room, desired conference roomlocation and a desired price or the like that are desired conditions ofthe consumer related to the demand information 112 a for which thematching is performed, and information such as the seating capacity,location and rental charge or the like of the conference room providedby the supplier related to the supply information 111 a for which thematching is performed) to the supplier terminal 2 of the trader in thesame business of the rental conference rooms in a neighboring area.Also, when the demand information 112 a which is the matching object isrelated to the purchase desire of a specific commodity, the resulttransmission unit 14 is capable of transmitting the supply information111 a for which the matching is performed to the consumer terminal 3 ofthe consumer who desires the purchase of the same commodity. Thus, whilecausing competitions of the supply and the demand between the supplierswith each other or the consumers desiring the provision of the sameservice or commodity with each other and activating the transaction, thematching result of a preferable condition is easily obtained.

If the matching between the demand information 112 a and the supplyinformation 111 a is established in the procedures of step S5 and stepS6 during a period of the information time limit of the supplyinformation 111 a or the information time limit 472 (see FIG. 14) of thedemand information 112 a (except for the case that the processing ofstep S8 to be described later is performed), the matching unit 12records established matching information in the information recordingunit 11, and holds the established matching information. In this stateof “holding the matching information”, though the matching isestablished, it is not the state that the consumer and/or the supplierestablishes a transaction on the basis of the result of the matching.That is, in the state of “holding the matching information”, thematching unit 12 handles the supply information 111 a and/or the demandinformation 112 a which is the result of the matching establishment inthe state of tentatively holding it as a candidate to establish thetransaction finally by the consumer and/or the supplier.

In such a manner, the matching unit 12 continuously performs thematching for at least either one of the demand information 112 a and thesupply information 111 a related to the established matchinginformation. That is, during the information time limit of the supplyinformation 111 a or the information time limit 472 (see FIG. 14) of thedemand information 112 a, or before the transaction is established bythe processing of the consumer or the supplier, for the demandinformation 112 a or the supply information 111 a for which the matchingis established, every time the addition/updating is performed to thedemand information 112 a or the supply information 111 a or other supplyinformation 111 a or demand information 112 a (step S5) or the othersupply information 111 a or demand information 112 a is deleted (stepS5), the matching unit 12 repeats (step S7) the continuous matching withthe supply information 111 a or the demand information 112 a (step S6)with the addition/updating/deletion of the supply information 111 a orthe demand information 112 a as a trigger. Then, every time the matchingby the matching unit 12 is performed, the result transmission unit 14repeats (step S7) the transmission of the matching result to thesupplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 (step S6). Also,every time the matching unit 12 performs the matching, the matching unit12 gathers the sum-up information, and the result transmission unit 14repeats (step S7) the transmission of the “needs sum-up information” tothe supplier terminal 2 and/or the transmission of the “recommendationsum-up information” to the consumer terminal 3 (step S4). At the time,for the supply information 111 a in the state that the matching isalready established and the matching information is held, the matchingunit 12 may inhibit new matching with the other demand information 112 aduring the information time limit 472 (see FIG. 14).

In this way, by tentatively holding the supply information 111 a and thedemand information 112 a related to the matching information for whichthe matching is established during the information time limit of thesupply information 111 a and the information time limit 472 (see FIG.14) of the demand information 112 a, and making the further matching beperformed on the basis of the supply information 111 a and the demandinformation 112 a, the consumer and/or the supplier can select the bestone suited to his/her preference from the held supply information 111 aand demand information 112 a during the period of the information timelimit of the supply information 111 a and the information time limit 472(see FIG. 14) of the demand information 112 a and/or after the end ofthe information time limit of the supply information 111 a and theinformation time limit 472 (see FIG. 14) of the demand information 112a, as described later. Thus, the consumer or the supplier can beprovided with an opportunity to select the best one from the servicesand the commodities or the like adapted to the conditions of thematching and perform a better transaction.

The processing of step S4-step S6 is repeated (step S7) until thematching unit 12 receives an instruction to end the matching based onthe supply information 111 a and the demand information 112 atransmitted from the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3,or until the period of the information time limit of the supplyinformation 111 a and/or the information time limit 472 (see FIG. 14) ofthe demand information 112 a is ended, or until the transaction isestablished.

[Step S8. Completion of Matching]

It is assumed that, after the matching is established by the processingof steps S3-S7, a transaction is established during the period of theinformation time limit of the supply information 111 a and theinformation time limit 472 (see FIG. 14) of the demand information 112 aor after the end of the period.

Here, “transaction establishment”, “the establishment of a transaction”,and “the fact that a transaction is established” mean that one of thefollowing (establishment condition 1) and (establishment condition 2) issatisfied.

(Establishment condition 1) The consumer indicates the intention oftransaction application by selecting the one most suited to his/her ownneeds from the supply information 111 a for which the matching isestablished, and simultaneously with the point of time when theintention of the transaction application is indicated, or after thepoint of time when the intention of the transaction application isindicated, the intention of the transaction application or the intentionof application acceptance is indicated to the consumer from the supplierwho has registered the supply information 111 a.

(Establishment Condition 2) The supplier indicates the intention oftransaction application by selecting the one most suited to his/her ownneeds from the demand information 112 a for which the matching isestablished, and simultaneously with the point of time when theintention of the transaction application is indicated, or after thepoint of time when the intention of the transaction application isindicated, the intention of the transaction application or the intentionof application acceptance is indicated to the supplier from the consumerwho has registered the demand information 112 a.

Specifically, for instance, it includes the case of being adapted to thefollowing (pattern 1) and (pattern 2) when two or more pieces of thedemand information 112 a and supply information 111 a (for which thematching is established with the supply information 111 a and the demandinformation 112 a registered by supplier and the consumer themselves)are presented respectively on both of the supplier side and the consumerside as the matching result.

(Pattern 1) One side of the supplier and the consumer indicates theintention of the transaction application to the other side, the otherside which receives the transaction application indicates the intentionof the application acceptance to the one side in the form of receivingit (that is, recognizing that the intention of the transactionapplication is indicated from the one side), and thus the supplier andthe consumer agree with the transaction. It corresponds to “after thepoint of time when the intention of the transaction application isindicated, . . . the intention of application acceptance is indicated .. . ” in the (establishment condition 1) and (establishment condition2).

(Pattern 2) Both of the supplier and the consumer indicate the intentionof the transaction application in the same time period (that is, withinan arbitrary time zone set beforehand), and the supplier and theconsumer agree with the transaction without confirming the intention ofthe application acceptance from an opposite side to which the intentionof the transaction application is indicated. It corresponds to“simultaneously with the point of time when the intention of thetransaction application is indicated . . . , the intention of thetransaction application . . . is indicated . . . ” in the (establishmentcondition 1) and (establishment condition 2).

In the meantime, the case not pertinent to the (establishmentcondition 1) and (establishment condition 2) is handled as “transactionnon-establishment” or “non-establishment of a transaction”.

The intention of the transaction application and the intention of theapplication acceptance of the consumer and the supplier are indicated bytapping various kinds of buttons displayed at the consumer terminal 3and the supplier terminal 2, such as tapping a transaction applicationbutton 543 displayed at the consumer terminal 3 and a transactionapplication button (not shown in the figure) displayed at the supplierterminal 2. However, it may be indicated by the other methods, forinstance, by communication by telephones or mail or the like orface-to-face communication of the supplier and the consumer or the like.

Concrete descriptions will be given for “transaction establishment”,“the establishment of a transaction”, and “the fact that a transactionis established”. For instance, when the matching is established, on thematching result individual information screen 53 of the supplierterminal 2, that is illustrated in FIG. 20, and the matching resultindividual information screen 54 of the consumer terminal 3, that isillustrated in FIG. 21, a combination of the supply information 111 aand the demand information 112 a, for which the matching is established,is displayed. In the state, when the intention of the transactionapplication and the intention of the application acceptance aredisplayed from the supplier and the consumer as illustrated in thefollowing <case 1> to <case 4>, a transaction is established.

<Case 1> The consumer using the consumer terminal 3 taps the transactionapplication button 543 to indicate the intention of the transactionapplication to arbitrary supply information 111 a, and simultaneouslywith the indication of the intention of the transaction application, orafter the point of time when the intention of the transactionapplication is indicated, the intention of the application acceptance ofthe supplier is automatically indicated by the processing of thematching unit 12, regardless of the presence/absence of the tapping ofthe transaction application button (not shown in the figure).

<Case 2> The consumer using the consumer terminal 3 taps the transactionapplication button 543 to indicate the intention of the transactionapplication to the arbitrary supply information 111 a, andsimultaneously with the indication of the intention of the transactionapplication, or after the point of time when the intention of thetransaction application is indicated, the intention of the transactionapplication or the intention of the application acceptance of thesupplier is indicated by the tapping of the transaction applicationbutton (not shown in the figure) displayed at the supplier terminal 2 orthe like by the supplier who has registered the supply information 111a.

<Case 3> The supplier using the supplier terminal 2 taps the transactionapplication button (not shown in the figure) to indicate the intentionof the transaction application to arbitrary demand information 112 a,and simultaneously with the indication of the intention of thetransaction application, or after the point of time when the intentionof the transaction application is indicated, the intention of theapplication acceptance of the consumer is automatically indicated by theprocessing of the matching unit 12, regardless of the presence/absenceof the tapping of the transaction application button 543.

<Case 4> The supplier using the supplier terminal 2 taps the transactionapplication button (not shown in the figure) to indicate the intentionof the transaction application to arbitrary demand information 112 a,and simultaneously with the indication of the intention of thetransaction application, or after the point of time when the intentionof the transaction application is indicated, the intention of thetransaction application or the intention of the application acceptanceof the consumer is indicated by the tapping of the transactionapplication button 543 displayed at the consumer terminal 3 or the likeby the consumer who has registered the demand information 112 a.

Also, “automatically . . . the intention of the transaction applicationis indicated” in the <case 1> and <case 3> is the setting in which, whenthe matching unit 12 acquires information indicating the intention ofthe transaction application to the supply information 111 a and thedemand information 112 a, the matching unit 12 automatically returns theinformation indicating the intention of the application acceptance ofthe supplier who has registered the supply information 111 a and theinformation indicating the intention of the application acceptance ofthe consumer who has registered the demand information 112 a under anarbitrary condition (for instance, until the number of the intentions ofthe transaction application acquired by the matching unit 12 for eachsupply information 111 a and demand information 112 a reaches a presetarbitrary number) (hereinafter, the same applies in the presentdescription). The matching support device 1 of the present embodimentcan be configured so that the supplier and the consumer can select suchsetting by using the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3.

The <case 1> and <case 2> will be described in more detail. When theconsumer uses the consumer terminal 3 and taps the transactionapplication button 543 in the state that arbitrary detailed information541 is displayed on the matching result individual information screen54, the supply information 111 a to be the origin of the detailedinformation 541 is selected. The matching unit 12 records theinformation indicating that the selection is made from the consumer inthe selected supply information 111 a. However, the matching unit 12 mayrecord the information indicating that the supply information 111 a isselected from the consumer, as the data other than the supplyinformation 111 a. In this state, when the intention of the applicationacceptance of the supplier is automatically indicated by the processingof the matching unit 12 (the <case 1>) or when the intention of thetransaction application or the intention of the application acceptanceof the supplier is indicated by the tapping of the transactionapplication button (not shown in the figure) displayed at the supplierterminal 2 by the supplier who has registered the supply information 111a (the <case 2>), handling is performed assuming that the transaction isestablished between the supplier and the consumer. Specifically, whenreceiving a signal transmitted from the supplier terminal 2 by thetapping of the transaction application button (not shown in the figure)of the supplier terminal 2, the matching unit 12 performs the processingassuming that the transaction is established between the supplier andthe consumer (for instance, the processing of displaying characterinformation indicating that the transaction is established at thedisplay unit 22 of the supplier terminal 2 and the display unit 32 ofthe consumer terminal 3, or the processing of recording the informationindicating that the transaction is established in the supply information111 a and the demand information 112 a, or the like). However, theprocessing assuming that the transaction is established between thesupplier and the consumer may be performed in a configuration other thanthe matching unit 12 or a configuration other than the matching supportdevice 1. Also, the intention of the transaction application or theintention of the application acceptance of the supplier and the consumeris displayed by acquiring the information transmitted from the supplierterminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 by the matching unit 12 of thematching support device 1 in principle, and matching unit 12 of thematching support device 1 performs the processing for assuming that thetransaction is established by automatic processing in principle,however, instead, an operator who manages and operates the matchingsupport device 1 may acquire the information indicating the intention ofthe transaction application or the intention of the transactionacceptance by oral communication by a telephone or the like orcommunication through communication means of FAX or mail or the likefrom the supplier and the consumer, and the operator may performhandling assuming the transaction is established by inputting theacquired information to the matching support device 1 by a manualoperation. By the establishment of the transaction, the transaction orthe like is ended.

Also, in the case that the push button 534 is tapped on the matchingresult individual information screen 53 of the supplier terminal 2illustrated in FIG. 20 and push reception display 542 is displayed forthe arbitrary supply information 111 a on the matching result individualinformation screen 54 of the consumer terminal 3 as illustrated in FIG.21, when the consumer taps the transaction application button 543 on thematching result individual information screen 54 of the consumerterminal 3 illustrated in FIG. 21 and the intention of the applicationacceptance of the supplier is automatically indicated by the processingof the matching unit 12 (the <case 1>) or when the intention of thetransaction application or the intention of the application acceptanceof the supplier is indicated by the tapping of the transactionapplication button (not shown in the figure) displayed at the supplierterminal 2 by the supplier who has registered the supply information 111a (the <case 2>), handling is performed assuming that the transaction isestablished between the supplier and the consumer.

The <case 3> and <case 4> will be described in more detail. Forinstance, it is assumed that, during the period of the information timelimit of the supply information 111 a and the information time limit 472(see FIG. 14) of the demand information 112 a or after the end of theperiod, in the state that the matching is already established and one,two or more pieces of matching information are held, the supplier tapsthe transaction application button (not shown in FIG. 20) on thematching result individual information screen 53 illustrated in FIG. 20and the supplier selects the one most adapted to his/her own needs fromthe demand information 112 a for which the matching is established.

In this case, on the matching result individual information screen 53,the demand information 112 a related to the matching information in thestate of being recorded and held in the information recording unit 11 instep S3 to step S7 is displayed. The supplier selects one piece of thedemand information 112 a most adapted to his/her own needs from thesepieces of the demand information 112 a using the supplier terminal 2,and when the intention of the application acceptance of the consumer isautomatically indicated by the processing of the matching unit 12 (the<case 3>) and when the intention of the transaction application or theintention of the application acceptance of the consumer is indicated bythe tapping of the transaction application button 543 displayed at theconsumer terminal 3 by the consumer who has registered the demandinformation 112 a (the <case 4>), the matching unit 12 records theinformation indicating that the selection is made from the supplier inthe selected demand information 112 a and the demand information 112 afor which the intention of the transaction application or the intentionof the application acceptance is indicated. However, the matching unit12 may record the information indicating that the demand information 112a is selected from the supplier as the data other than the demandinformation 112 a. By the above-described processing being performed,handling is performed assuming that the transaction is establishedbetween the supplier and the consumer.

That is, when the supplier uses the supplier terminal 2 and taps thetransaction application button (not shown in FIG. 20) in the state thatarbitrary detailed information 531 is displayed on the matching resultindividual information screen 53, the demand information 112 a to be theorigin of the detailed information 531 is selected. In the state, whenthe intention of the application acceptance of the consumer isautomatically indicated by the processing of the matching unit 12 (the<case 3>) and when the intention of the transaction application or theintention of the application acceptance of the consumer is indicated bythe tapping of the transaction application button 543 displayed at theconsumer terminal 3 by the consumer who has registered the demandinformation 112 a (the <case 4>), handling is performed assuming thatthe transaction is established between the supplier and the consumer.Specifically, when receiving a signal transmitted from the consumerterminal 3 by the tapping of the transaction application button 543 ofthe consumer terminal 3, the matching unit 12 performs the processingassuming that the transaction is established between the supplier andthe consumer (for instance, the processing of displaying characterinformation indicating that the transaction is established at thedisplay unit 22 of the supplier terminal 2 and the display unit 32 ofthe consumer terminal 3, or the processing of recording the informationindicating that the transaction is established in the supply information111 a and the demand information 112 a, or the like). However, theprocessing assuming that the transaction is established between thesupplier and the consumer may be performed in a configuration other thanthe matching unit 12 or a configuration other than the matching supportdevice 1. Also, the intention of the transaction application or theintention of the application acceptance of the supplier and the consumeris displayed by acquiring the information transmitted from the supplierterminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 by the matching unit 12 of thematching support device 1 in principle, and matching unit 12 of thematching support device 1 performs the processing for assuming that thetransaction is established by automatic processing in principle,however, instead, an operator who manages and operates the matchingsupport device 1 may acquire the information indicating the intention ofthe transaction application or the intention of the transactionacceptance by oral communication by a telephone or the like orcommunication through communication means of FAX or mail or the likefrom the supplier and the consumer, and the operator may performhandling assuming the transaction is established by inputting theacquired information to the matching support device 1 by a manualoperation.

After the arbitrary supply information 111 a is selected in the consumerterminal 3 and the arbitrary demand information 112 a is selected in thesupplier terminal 2, the matching unit 12 deletes the supply information111 a not selected by the consumer terminal 3 and the demand information112 a not selected by the supplier terminal 2 from the informationrecording unit 11 to dissolve the state that they are held, and returnsthe state to the state before the matching is performed in theprocedures of step S3 to step S7. That is, the matching unit 12 returnsthe supply information 111 a not selected by the consumer terminal 3 andthe demand information 112 a not selected by the supplier terminal 2 tothe state that the matching is not performed with the selected demandinformation 112 a and supply information 111 a. Specifically, in thestate illustrated in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B for instance, when the “eatingplace B” 111 a 1 included in the supply information 111 a illustrated in(c) in FIG. 6B is not selected by the consumer, the state that the“eating place B” 111 a 1 and the “restaurant” 112 a 1 included in thedemand information 112 a illustrated in (b) in FIG. 6A are linked isreturned to the state that the link is canceled. Similarly, when thearbitrary demand information 112 a is not selected by the supplier, thestate that the arbitrary demand information 112 a and the supplyinformation 111 a of the supplier are linked is returned to the statethat the link is canceled. Thus, the matching is ended (step S8).

It is assumed that, before the end of the information time limit 472(see FIG. 14) of the demand information 112 a and the information timelimit of the supply information 111 a, for the supply information 111 aand the demand information 112 a for which the matching is notestablished and which are recorded in the information recording unit 11and are within the range of the information time limit of the supplyinformation 111 a and the information time limit 472 (see FIG. 14) ofthe demand information 112 a, the supplier using the supplier terminal 2and the consumer using the consumer terminal 3 transmit an instructionto end the matching based on the demand information 112 a and the supplyinformation 111 a. When the matching unit 12 acquires the instruction,the matching unit 12 ends the matching based on the supply information111 a and the demand information 112 a. However, when the matching unit12 acquires the instruction to end the matching for only one of thesupply information 111 a and the demand information 112 a for which thematching is established, the matching unit 12 cancels the matching, anduses the supply information 111 a or the demand information 112 a forwhich the instruction to end the matching is not acquired continuouslyfor the matching with the other demand information 112 a and supplyinformation 111 a.

Further, when the supply information 111 a and the demand information112 a for which the matching is not established and which are recordedin the information recording unit 11 exceed the range of the informationtime limit 472 (see FIG. 14) of the demand information 112 a and theinformation time limit of the supply information 111 a, the matchingunit 12 ends the matching processing based on the supply information 111a and the demand information 112 a.

[Step S9. Start of Provision and Utilization of Service]

When the transaction is established by the result of the matching instep S8, the matching unit 12 excludes the supply information 111 a andthe demand information 112 a for which the transaction is establishedfrom the matching objects. Then, the supplier using the supplierterminal 2 provides the service based on the supply information 111 afor which the transaction is established or the article based on thesupply information 111 a, and the consumer using the consumer terminal 3utilizes the service provided from the supplier or purchases ortransfers the article or the like (step S9)

Here, when the transaction is established by the result of the matching,the supply information 111 a and/or the demand information 112 a relatedto the matching for which the transaction is established is sent fromthe matching unit 12 through the result transmission unit 14 to theschedule management unit 15. Then, the schedule management unit 15incorporates the acquired supply information 111 a and/or demandinformation 112 a in the schedule information 111 b and/or the scheduleinformation 112 b prepared or managed by the schedule management unit 15itself, and prepares the schedule information 111 b and/or the scheduleinformation 112 b. As a result, at the display unit 22 and/or thedisplay unit 32 of the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal3, the supply information 111 a and/or the demand information 112 a forwhich the transaction is established as the result of the matching isdisplayed on the monthly schedule display screen (see FIG. 22) fordisplaying a monthly schedule, the weekly schedule display screen (seeFIG. 11) for displaying a weekly schedule, or the daily schedule displayscreen (see FIG. 12) for displaying a daily schedule. For instance, onthe daily schedule display screen 45 illustrated in FIG. 12, theinformation such as the name, location and contact or the like of theconference room for which the transaction is established (that is, areservation is made) by being selected by the consumer from the consumerterminal 3 is displayed.

<Operation Procedure 2: The Case that Registration from the ConsumerTerminal 3 is Performed First>

It is a procedure of starting the matching by registering the demandinformation 112 a from the consumer terminal 3 in step S1 andregistering the supply information 111 a from the supplier terminal 2 instep S2.

This <operation procedure 2> is basically similar to <operationprocedure 1> except that the order of the registration of the demandinformation 112 a and the supply information 111 a in step S1 and stepS2 is opposite, the description will be given below in a simple manner.

That is, in the procedure illustrated in FIG. 4, first, the resourceelement information 112 c which is the demand resource element isregistered from the consumer terminal 3 to the matching support device1, and the registration of the demand information 112 a by that isperformed (an arrow B1 in step S1). Next, the supply information 111 ais registered by the supply request registration from the supplierterminal 2 to the matching support device 1 (an arrow B2 in step S2),and the trigger unit 13 makes the matching unit 12 perform the matchingwith the supply request registration as a trigger (step S3). The resulttransmission unit 14 transmits the matching result to the supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 (step S3). The resulttransmission unit 14 prepares the sum-up information of the matching,and performs the transmission to the supplier terminal 2 as the “needssum-up information” and/or the transmission to the consumer terminal 3as the “recommendation sum-up information” (step S4). When acquiring theaddition/updating/deletion request of the demand information 112 a fromthe consumer terminal 3 or the addition/updating/deletion request of thesupply information 111 a from the supplier terminal 2 (step S5), theinformation recording unit 11, the matching unit 12 and the trigger unit13 perform, with it as a trigger, the matching between the demandinformation 112 a and the supply information 111 a, the resulttransmission unit 14 transmits the matching result to the supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3, and the information recordingunit 11 holds matching establishment information (step S6). The matchingsupport device 1 repeats the procedures of steps S4-S6 (step S7). Duringthe period of the information time limit of the supply information 111 aor after the end of the period, or during the period of the informationtime limit 472 (see FIG. 14) of the demand information 112 a or afterthe end of the period, the consumer uses the consumer terminal 3 and/orthe supplier uses the supplier terminal 2 to indicate the intention ofthe transaction application or the intention of the applicationacceptance for the supply information 111 a and/or the demandinformation 112 a most adapted to his/her own needs from the heldmatching result information so that the transaction is established andthe matching is ended (step S8), and the provision of the service andarticle or the like by the supplier using the supplier terminal 2 andthe utilization of the service and the purchase of the article or thelike by the consumer using the consumer terminal 3 are started (stepS9).

As illustrated above, in the present embodiment, the matching unit 12records, during the arbitrary period, the established matchinginformation in the information recording unit 11, holds the establishedmatching information, and continues the matching for at least one of thedemand information 112 a and the supply information 111 a related to theestablished matching information, and the matching unit 12 performsprocessing assuming that the transaction is established for at least oneof the demand information 112 a and the supply information 111 a, thatis transmitted to at least one of the supplier terminal 2 and theconsumer terminal 3 by the result transmission unit 14 during thearbitrary period or after the end of the arbitrary period, and selectedby at least one of the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3,and/or, at least one of the supplier using the supplier terminal 2 andthe consumer using the consumer terminal 3, so that the supplier and theconsumer can tentatively hold the demand information 112 a and thesupply information 111 a for which the matching is established duringthe arbitrary period, and select the best one from the held demandinformation 112 a and supply information 111 a during the arbitraryperiod or after the end of the arbitrary period, and the transaction canbe established for the demand information 112 a and the supplyinformation 111 a selected by the supplier and the consumer. Thus, it ispossible to provide the supplier and the consumer with an opportunity toselect the best one from the services and the commodities or the likeadapted to the condition of the matching and establish the traction.

In the present embodiment, the matching unit 12 ends the matching at thepoint of time when the matching is established even within the arbitraryperiod, thereby preventing the situation that the matching is performedagain for the supply information 111 a and the demand information 112 afor which the matching is established and the information processing andthe transaction are obstructed. Thus, it is possible to achieve theaccurate information processing and transaction, and surely achieve thematching between the demand information 112 a and the supply information111 a quickly and accurately reflecting the changes in the information.

In the present embodiment, the matching unit 12 ends the matching at thepoint of time of acquiring the instruction to end the matching from atleast one of the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 evenwithin the arbitrary period, thereby preventing the situation that thematching is performed again for the supply information 111 a and thedemand information 112 a for which the matching is not desired by thesupplier and the consumer of the services and the commodities andinformation processing and transaction are obstructed. Thus, it ispossible to achieve the accurate information processing and transaction,and surely achieve the matching between the demand information 112 a andthe supply information 111 a quickly and accurately reflecting thechanges in the information.

In the present embodiment, the matching between the demand information112 a and the supply information 111 a can be performed with the setarbitrary condition as a trigger. Also, the trigger unit 13, when atleast one of the new supply information 111 a, the new demandinformation 112 a and the updating information which updates the alreadyacquired supply information 111 a and/or the already acquired demandinformation 112 a is acquired from at least one of the supplier terminal2 and the consumer terminal 3, makes the matching unit 12 perform thematching with at least one of the supply information 111 a, the demandinformation 112 a and the updating information as a trigger, so that thematching quickly reflecting the changes generated in the informationtransmitted from at least one of a supplier side and a consumer side isperformed, and a quick transaction opportunity can be given to thesupplier and the consumer who have provided the information. Also, bytransmitting the result of the matching to at least one of the consumerterminal 3 and the supplier terminal 2 successively, a furthertransaction opportunity based on establishment or non-establishment ofthe matching can be quickly and accurately given to the consumer and thesupplier.

In the present embodiment, the matching unit 12 sends the result of thematching to the schedule management unit 15, and the schedule managementunit 15 prepares the schedule using the result of the matching, so thatthe schedule management of the consumer and the supplier and thematching are linked, and the schedule of the consumer and the suppliercan be prepared using the result of the matching. Thus, it is possibleto improve convenience when preparing the schedule on the basis of theresult of the matching between the demand information 112 a and thesupply information 111 a.

In the present embodiment, the matching unit 12 performs the matching onthe basis of the request of the schedule management unit 15 so that itis made possible to perform the matching for the demand information 112a and the supply information 111 a required in the process of preparingthe schedule and establish the matching. In particular, when setting issuch that the matching can be requested from a schedule preparationscreen displayed at the consumer terminal 3 and the supplier terminal 2,the consumer and the supplier can request the matching between thedemand information 112 a and the supply information 111 a to thematching support device 1 from the schedule preparation screen. Thus, itis possible to further improve the convenience when requesting thematching between the demand information 112 a and the supply information111 a on the basis of schedule contents.

Also, in the embodiment, in step S1, the supply information 111 a and/orthe demand information 112 a to be the matching object is generated andregistered on the basis of the information transmitted from the supplierterminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3, registered as the resourceelement information 111 c and/or the resource element information 112 cand recorded in the information recording unit 11, however, the matchingcan be also performed on the basis of the supply information 111 aand/or the demand information 112 a which is transmitted from thesupplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 (not as the resourceelement information 111 c and/or the resource element information 112 cbut as the supply information 111 a and/or the demand information 112a), and is not registered as the supply information 111 a and/or thedemand information 112 a or recorded in the information recording unit11. Also, in step S1, the matching can be performed on the basis of theinformation transmitted from the supplier terminal 2 and/or the consumerterminal 3 as the supply information 111 a and/or the demand information112 a, registered as the supply information 111 a and/or the demandinformation 112 a and recorded in the information recording unit 11.

<Application 1>

The matching support system 1A and the matching support device 1 of theembodiment illustrate the case that the matching is performed betweenthe supply information 111 a registered from one terminal (the supplierterminal 2 of one supplier, or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumerterminal 3 of the one supplier and consumer) and the demand information112 a registered from one terminal (the consumer terminal 3 of oneconsumer, or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 of theone supplier and consumer), and only the supplier or the supplier andthe consumer using the one terminal (the supplier terminal 2 of onesupplier, or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 of theone supplier and consumer) and the consumer or the supplier and theconsumer using the one terminal (the consumer terminal 3 of oneconsumer, or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 of theone supplier and consumer) use the matching result. However, it is notlimited to this case, and one matching result can be shared by thesupplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 other than thesupplier terminal 2 and/or the consumer terminal 3 for which thematching is performed.

For instance, a configuration may be such that, when the matching isestablished as a result of the matching (step S3) and a conference roomis reserved, the result transmission unit 14 transmits the conferenceroom reservation situation by the matching result to the consumerterminal 3 used by the consumer, or the supplier and the consumer(employees of the same company, for instance), or the supplier terminal2 and the consumer terminal 3 used by the supplier and the consumer(employees of the same company, for instance) belonging to the samecategory as the consumer of the consumer terminal 3, or the supplier andthe consumer of the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3,using the matching support device 1. By such a configuration, the resultof the matching is easily shared among the plurality of consumers andsuppliers and the convenience of the consumer and the supplier can beimproved.

<Application 2>

By utilizing the recommendation engine provided in the resulttransmission unit 14 of the matching support system 1A and the matchingsupport device 1 of the embodiment, and transmitting the supplyinformation 111 a for which the matching is not established and/or thedemand information 112 a for which the matching is not established tothe consumer terminal 3 and/or the supplier terminal 2, the possibilityof establishing the matching can be increased.

For instance, in step S4, it is assumed that the supply information 111a which is not adapted to the condition as the result of the matchingbut has a close condition (for instance, the conference room for whichthe “location” is at a distance within a preset distance (500 m, forinstance) from the “location” desired by the demand information 112 abut the “nearest station” is at a location different from the “neareststation” desired by the demand information 112 a) is recorded in theinformation recording unit 11. In this case, the result transmissionunit 14 may transmit the supply information 111 a to the consumerterminal 3, or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 as“recommendation information” separately from the information of thematching establishment result. Similarly, the result transmission unit14 may transmit the demand information 112 a transmitted from theconsumer terminal 3, or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumerterminal 3 as “reference information” separately from the result of thematching to the supplier terminal 2, or the supplier terminal 2 and theconsumer terminal 3 which have transmitted the supply information 111 aas well.

In such a manner, by transmitting at least one of the supply information111 a for which the matching is not established and the demandinformation 112 a for which the matching is not established to theconsumer terminal 3 and/or the supplier terminal 2, the resulttransmission unit 14 can report the contents of the services and thecommodities for which the matching establishment is waited for atpresent and the desires of the consumers waiting for the matchingestablishment at present or the like to both of the consumer using theconsumer terminal 3, or the supplier and the consumer using the supplierterminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3, who have has registered thedemand information 112 a, and the supplier using the supplier terminal2, or the supplier and the consumer using the supplier terminal 2 andthe consumer terminal 3, who have registered the supply information 111a, and accelerate the notification of the supply information 111 a andthe transmission of the supply information 111 a according to the demandinformation 112 a. Thus, the possibility of establishing the matchingcan be increased.

<Application 3>

By linking the matching unit 12 and the schedule management unit 15 ofthe matching support system 1A and the matching support device 1 of theembodiment, it is possible to determine not only a one-shot event butalso the event that is periodically generated by the matching andprepare the schedule information 111 b and/or the schedule information112 b.

FIG. 22 is a conceptual diagram of a state that the monthly scheduledisplay screen 55 is displayed at the display unit 32 of the consumerterminal 3, in the matching support system 1A and the matching supportdevice 1 of the present embodiment. In the figure, the display of theconsumer terminal 3 itself and the display of various kinds of buttonsare omitted. As illustrated in the figure, on the monthly scheduledisplay screen 55, in addition to the one-shot events such as “trip toHokkaido” and “ski”, there exist, as the events that are periodicallygenerated every week, a first periodical event 551 of “golf practice” onevery Sunday and a second periodical event 552 of “grocery shopping” onevery Saturday or the like, for instance.

By the request of the consumer from the consumer terminal 3, theschedule management unit 15 makes the matching in the matching unit 12be performed not only for a first one-shot event 553 of “trip toHokkaido” and a second one-shot event 554 of “ski” but also for thefirst periodical event 551 and the second periodical event 552, preparesthe schedule using the transactions (that is, a reserved golf course andan online supermarket to make a purchase or the like) established on thebasis of the result of the matching, and makes the prepared schedule bedisplayed on the monthly schedule display screen 55.

Here, for instance, in the case of the reservation of a golf course, thecase that only a country club A can be reserved on a certain specificdate (for instance, November 4 in FIG. 22) and only a country club Bnear the country club A can be reserved on another specific date (forinstance, November 11 in FIG. 11), that is, the situation that atransaction establishment condition is different for each date and time,is possible to occur. Then, even in such a case that the transactionestablishment condition is different for each date and time, thematching unit 12 is capable of transmitting the supply information 111 afor which the transaction can be established to the consumer terminal 3,or the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 for every dateand time to make the consumer, or the supplier and the consumer performthe transaction, or transmitting the demand information 112 a for whichthe transaction can be established to the supplier terminal 2, or thesupplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3 for every date and timeto make the supplier, or the supplier and the consumer perform thetransaction. Thus, the convenience of the transaction of the scheduleincluding the periodical events can be improved.

<Application 4>

In the matching support system 1A and the matching support device 1 ofthe embodiment, by generalizing two or more pieces of the demandinformation 112 a and the supply information 111 a, a highly convenientsystem can be provided for the plurality of consumers having similardemand elements and the plurality of suppliers having similar supplyelements.

Specifically, for instance, the matching support system 1A and thematching support device 1 are capable of making the plurality ofconsumers, and/or the suppliers and the consumers having the similardemand elements, using the consumer terminal 3, or the supplier terminal2 and the consumer terminal 3, know the presence of the similar demandelements with each other and gathering the demand elements, therebyestablishing the individual demand elements as a group demand element.

Also, for instance, the matching support system 1A and the matchingsupport device 1 are capable of making the plurality of suppliers,and/or the suppliers and the consumers having the similar supplyelements, using the supplier terminal 2, or the supplier terminal 2 andthe consumer terminal 3, know the presence of the similar supplyelements with each other and gathering the supply elements, therebyestablishing the individual supply elements as a group supply element.

By such a configuration, it becomes possible to gather the demandinformation 112 a of the consumers, and/or the suppliers and theconsumers with each other, and gather the supply information 111 a ofthe suppliers, and/or the suppliers and the consumers with each other,and as a result, the condition with the high possibility of theestablishment can be presented for the transaction whose condition isnot agreed by the demand elements of the individual demand information112 a and the supply elements of the individual supply information 111a.

<Application 5>

The matching support system 1A and the matching support device 1 of theembodiment can provide various transaction opportunities to the supplierand the consumer using a behavior plan variable.

Here, the “behavior plan variable” is a variable indicating aschedule-to-result difference ratio calculated by a different comparisonbetween the transaction plan of the consumer and the result of thetransaction, and/or, a difference comparison between the transactionplan of the supplier and the result of the transaction, and planreliability calculated on the basis of the schedule-to-result differenceratio.

An acquisition procedure of the behavior plan variable will bespecifically described below.

First, the case of obtaining the behavior plan variable of the consumeris considered. In the matching support system 1A and the matchingsupport device 1 of the embodiment, the matching unit 12 registers theinformation of the transaction plan inputted by the consumer from theconsumer terminal 3 (for instance, the plan information of purchasing anarbitrary commodity or receiving the provision of an arbitrary serviceor the like) as a part of consumer side information 112, in [preliminaryprocedure 2. Prior registration] or the like for instance. For theinformation of the transaction plan, the entire transaction (forinstance, the entire transaction of “purchasing the arbitrarycommodity”) may be a unit, or an individual element item configuring theentire transaction (for instance, the individual element item such as“purchase time period”, “name of the commodity to be purchased”, and“purchase quantity” configuring the transaction of “purchasing thearbitrary commodity”) may be the unit. Also, for the information of thetransaction plan inputted by the consumer, the matching unit 12 may makethe schedule management unit 15 perform the processing of registering itas the schedule information 112 b or the like, or the matching unit 12may register it as the information different from the scheduleinformation 112 b or the like. Then, after the transaction isestablished in [step S8. Completion of matching], the matching unit 12acquires the demand information 112 a for the time when the transactionis established.

Then, the matching unit 12 compares the registered information of thetransaction plan and the acquired demand information 112 a, and confirmswhether or not the information of the transaction plan and theinformation corresponding to the information of the transaction plan inthe acquired demand information 112 a (for instance, when theinformation of the transaction plan is the entire transaction, it is thecorresponding entire transaction, and when the information of thetransaction plan is the individual element item, it is the correspondingindividual element item. It is called “corresponding information”,hereinafter.) match.

When the information of the transaction plan and the correspondinginformation of the demand information 112 a match, the matching unit 12registers the corresponding information in a part of the consumer sideinformation 112 assuming that the transaction is established on thebasis of the transaction plan. On the basis of an arbitrary numericalvalue obtained on the basis of the information, the matching unit 12performs arbitrary calculation (for instance, “the number of pieces ofthe corresponding information in the transaction established on thebasis of the transaction plan” “the number of the transaction plansinputted from the consumer terminal 3” or the like), and calculates theschedule-to-result difference ratio. Then, the matching unit 12 definesthe calculated schedule-to-result difference ratio as the behavior planvariable of the consumer. The matching unit 12 may calculate theschedule-to-result difference ratio and define it as the behavior planvariable of the consumer every time the transaction is established, orcalculate the schedule-to-result difference ratio and define it as thebehavior plan variable of the consumer for all of the plurality oftransactions established in the arbitrary period in the past (that is,before an arbitrary point of time).

Next, the case of obtaining the behavior plan variable of the supplieris considered. In this case as well, the basic procedure is the same asthe case of obtaining the behavior plan variable of the consumer. Thatis, in the matching support system 1A and the matching support device 1of the embodiment, the matching unit 12 registers the information of thetransaction plan inputted by the supplier from the supplier terminal 2(for instance, the plan information of providing an arbitrary commodityor providing an arbitrary service or the like) as a part of supplierside information 111, in [preliminary procedure 2. Prior registration]or the like for instance. For the information of the transaction plan,the entire transaction (for instance, the entire transaction of“providing the arbitrary commodity”) may be a unit, or an individualelement item configuring the entire transaction (for instance, theindividual element item such as “provision time period”, “name of thecommodity to be provided”, and “provision quantity” configuring theentire transaction of “providing the arbitrary commodity”) may be theunit. Also, for the information of the transaction plan inputted by thesupplier, the matching unit 12 may make the schedule management unit 15perform the processing of registering it as the schedule information 111b or the like, or the matching unit 12 may register it as theinformation different from the schedule information 111 b or the like.Then, after the transaction is established in [step S8. Completion ofmatching], the matching unit 12 acquires the supply information 111 afor the time when the transaction is established.

Then, the matching unit 12 compares the registered information of thetransaction plan and the acquired supply information 111 a, and confirmswhether or not the information of the transaction plan and theinformation corresponding to the information of the transaction plan inthe acquired supply information 111 a match.

When the information of the transaction plan and the correspondinginformation of the supply information 111 a match, the matching unit 12registers the corresponding information in a part of the supplier sideinformation 111 assuming that the transaction is established on thebasis of the transaction plan. On the basis of an arbitrary numericalvalue obtained on the basis of the information, the matching unit 12performs arbitrary calculation (for instance, “the number of pieces ofthe corresponding information in the transaction established on thebasis of the transaction plan” “the number of the transaction plansinputted from the supplier terminal 2” or the like), and calculates theschedule-to-result difference ratio. Then, the matching unit 12 definesthe calculated schedule-to-result difference ratio as the behavior planvariable of the supplier. The matching unit 12 may calculate theschedule-to-result difference ratio and define it as the behavior planvariable of the supplier every time the transaction is established, orcalculate the schedule-to-result difference ratio and define it as thebehavior plan variable of the supplier for all of the plurality oftransactions established in the arbitrary period in the past (that is,before an arbitrary point of time).

By using the behavior plan variable obtained as described above, thematching support system 1A and the matching support device 1 of theembodiment can form statistical information for measuring reliabilityand a trend value of demand plan information in the future (that is,after the arbitrary point of time) of the consumer, and/or supply planinformation in the future (that is, after the arbitrary point of time)of the supplier, and provide it for the supplier and the consumer. Also,the matching unit 12 can also form the statistical information includingthe information other than the behavior plan variable, for instance, anevaluation by a third person on the past transaction of the consumerand/or the past transaction of the supplier (for instance, a numericalvalue indicating the degree of reliability of the consumer, that isprovided from the supplier who has performed various kinds oftransactions including the transaction based on the matching with theconsumer, or a numerical value indicating the degree of reliability ofthe supplier, that is provided from the consumer who has performedvarious kinds of transactions including the transaction based on thematching with the supplier, or the like).

Specifically, for instance, when displaying the demand information 112 aregistered from the consumer terminal 3 to the matching support device 1by the consumer at the supplier terminal 2, the matching unit 12 iscapable of displaying the behavior plan variable formed on the basis ofthe past transaction of the consumer together. Thus, the supplier usingthe supplier terminal 2 can obtain an index for determining thereliability of the transaction of the consumer (that is, an index to bea reference for determining how much of the possibility there is thatthe transaction is to be established when the matching is performed withthe demand information 112 a of the consumer).

Similarly, for instance, when displaying the supply information 111 aregistered from the supplier terminal 2 to the matching support device 1by the supplier at the consumer terminal 3, the matching unit 12 iscapable of displaying the behavior plan variable formed on the basis ofthe past transaction of the supplier together. Thus, the consumer usingthe consumer terminal 3 can obtain an index for determining thereliability of the transaction of the supplier (that is, an index to bea reference for determining how much of the possibility there is thatthe transaction is to be established when the matching is performed withthe supply information 111 a of the supplier).

Also, by utilizing the behavior plan variable as a segmentation variablein consumer purchase behavior analysis and segmentation analysis foranalyzing the tendency and preference of the consumer and planning astrategy by the supplier, the accuracy and efficiency of the analysiscan be improved.

While conventional predictive analysis in the consumer purchase behavioranalysis and the segmentation analysis is the predictive analysis basedon the past purchase result utilizing a behavior variable or the like,since the predictive analysis by the behavior plan variable is thepredictive analysis based on the future purchase plan of the consumerhimself/herself backed up by the plan reliability of each consumerderived from a difference between the past purchase plan and thepurchase result of the consumer himself/herself, more accuraterecognition of the consumer purchase behavior and segmentation with highaccuracy are made possible.

In such a manner, by providing the consumer and the supplier with thestatistical information using the behavior plan variable, theconvenience when the consumer and the supplier make the transaction plancan be improved. That is, the predictive analysis with high accuracy andhigh probability is made possible on what kind of purchase and supplyare to be actually performed for the transaction plans registered by theindividual consumer and the individual supplier. Also, since thesupplier can obtain the time period of the transaction and the tendencyof the transaction of the consumer as prediction information with theplan reliability, formulation of a surer transaction plan anddevelopment plan or the like is made possible. Also, since the consumercan obtain the time period of the transaction and the tendency of thetransaction of the supplier as the prediction information with the planreliability, formulation of a surer transaction plan is made possible.

Concrete Example of Utilization 1

For instance, the case of use in real estate purchase and sale isconsidered. That is, it includes the case that a person who wants to buya house (consumer) and a person who wants to sell a house (supplier)perform the matching using the matching support device 1 and perform thetransaction or the like.

Concrete Example of Utilization 2

For instance, the case of use in job offer, job hunting and employmentis considered. That is, it includes the case that a person who desiresto look for a job (supplier) and an employer or an employing company(consumer) perform the matching using the matching support device 1 andsecure an employer and an employee or the like.

Concrete Example of Utilization 3

For instance, the case of use in securing a vacant seat of a shop ormeans of transportation is considered. That is, it includes the casethat a person who wants to reserve a vacant seat of a restaurant or aseat of an airplane (consumer) and the restaurant or an airline companyperform the matching using the matching support device 1 and secure thevacant seat and the reservation or the like.

In the above embodiment, basically, in the procedures in [preliminaryprocedure 1. Menu screen display] to [preliminary procedure 3. Scheduleregistration to scheduler] and the procedures illustrated in [step S1(arrow A1). Preparation/storage of information] to [step S9. Start ofprovision and utilization of service] or the like, the matching supportdevice 1 automatically performs transmission and reception of theinformation to/from the supplier terminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3and the processing of the information transmitted from the supplierterminal 2 and the consumer terminal 3. However, regardless of that, inthe embodiment, for at least some of the procedures indicated above, anoperator who manages and operates the matching support device 1 cantransmit and receive the information by oral communication by atelephone or the like or communication means of FAX or mail or the likefrom the supplier and the consumer, input the acquired information tothe matching support device 1 by a manual operation, and perform theprocessing of the acquired information or the like by the manualoperation.

The above embodiment is an exemplification of the present invention, andthe present invention is of course not limited to the above embodiment.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The matching support system 1A and the matching support device 1 of theembodiment are used in various fields with the need of performing thematching between the demand information 112 a and the supply information111 a for the services and the articles or the like. For instance, in aso-called B-to-B field, human resource matching, the matching of arental conference room or a rental seminar site or the like, and thematching of business and solutions are considered. Also, in a so-calledB-to-C field, applications to the matching of a restaurant or a bar orthe like, the matching of a beauty parlor, the matching of a hotel, aJapanese-style hotel, or a tour company or the like, the matching ofrental properties or a remodeling contractor or the like, and thematching of an EC site for shopping or the like are considered. Further,in a so-called C-to-C field, applications to an auction and a reverseauction in purchase and sale of used articles between individuals or thelike are considered.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

-   -   1A . . . Matching support system    -   1 . . . Matching support device    -   2, 2 ₁, . . . , 2 _(n) . . . Supplier terminal    -   3, 3 ₁, . . . , 3 _(m) . . . Consumer terminal    -   11 . . . Information recording unit (information recording        means)    -   12 . . . Matching unit (matching means)    -   13 . . . Trigger unit (trigger means)    -   14 . . . Result transmission unit (result transmission means)    -   15 . . . Schedule management unit (schedule management means)    -   111 a . . . Supply information    -   112 a . . . Demand information

The invention claimed is:
 1. A terminal device to communicationallycouple to a matching device, the terminal device comprising: a processorto, display at least one of a daily, a weekly, or a monthly schedule, ona display screen of the terminal device, the schedule being input to theterminal device by a user and editable on the terminal device by theuser, the user capable of identifying whether the user requests amatching based on the schedule, and, in a case where a matching isrequested, whether the schedule is used as supply information for thematching, or as demand information for the matching, and in a case wherea matching is requested, transmit the schedule edited by the user as asupplier as the supply information for the matching, or the scheduleedited by the user as a demander as the demand information for thematching, to the matching device to cause a match between the supplyinformation and the demand information.
 2. A matching device tocommunicationally couple to the terminal device according to claim 1,the matching device comprising a processor to, calculate, based oninformation of respective matches between the supply informationincluding a plurality of information elements indicating at least one ofsupply services or articles and the demand information including aplurality of information elements indicating at least one of demandservices or articles, a schedule-to-result difference ratio of at leastone of the supply information or demand information to determine, asupply match reliability value of the supply information, a demand matchreliability value of the demand information, and respective supply anddemand trend values, the schedule-to-result difference ratio of the atleast one of supply information or demand information, respectively,calculated based upon, respective differences between a number ofinformation elements of the supply information at a determined point oftime and a number of information elements of a supply informationcorresponding to a match in the matches after the determined point oftime, and respective differences between a number of informationelements of the demand information at a determined point of time and anumber of information elements of a demand information corresponding toa match in the matches after the determined point of time, and updatethe display screen at the terminal device during a match period bytransmitting information of supply information and/or or demandinformation, respectively with corresponding determined supply anddemand match reliabilities, and supply and demand trend values, toindicate prediction information and reliability information asindication of future match determination reliability.
 3. The matchingdevice according to claim 2, wherein the supply information indicates atleast one of supply services or articles obtained from the terminaldevice as a terminal device of supplier, and the demand informationindicates at least one of demand services or articles obtained from theterminal device as a terminal device of demander, the processor iscoupled to a memory to, register supply plan information obtained fromthe terminal device of supplier, the supply plan information including aplurality of information elements indicating the at least one of supplyservices or articles; register demand plan information obtained from theterminal device of demander, the demand plan information including aplurality of information elements indicating the at least one of demandservices or articles; acquire information of respective matches betweenthe registered supply plan information and registered demand planinformation, a match among the matches determined based upon candidatematches by, continuing to acquire the at least one of supply planinformation or demand plan information during a match period specifiedfrom the terminal device of supplier or the terminal device of demander,respectively, to determine the candidate matches including a firstcandidate match and at least one second candidate match by comparing theinformation elements of at least one of a first one of past supply planinformation or a first one of past demand plan information, withinformation elements of a corresponding second one of the supply planinformation or a second one of the demand plan information that is mostrecently acquired during the match period, the continuing to acquire theat least one of supply plan information or demand plan informationduring a match period includes, monitoring information indicating acondition, and in response to the condition, determine another secondcandidate match with the condition, the condition being when at leastone of the most recently acquired second one of the supply information,the most recently acquired second one of the demand information, orupdating information which updates the at least one of past supplyinformation or past demand information, is acquired from the terminaldevice of supplier or the terminal device of demander, respectively, todetermine the another second candidate match; calculate, based on theinformation of respective matches, a schedule-to-result difference ratioof the at least one of supply plan information or demand planinformation to determine, a supply match reliability value of the supplyplan information, a demand match reliability value of the demand planinformation, and respective supply and demand trend values, theschedule-to-result difference ratio of the at least one of supply planinformation or demand plan information, respectively, calculated basedupon, respective differences between a number of information elements ofthe registered supply plan information at a determined point of time anda number of information elements of a supply plan informationcorresponding to a match in the matches after the determined point oftime, and respective differences between a number of informationelements of the registered demand plan information at a determined pointof time and a number of information elements of a demand planinformation corresponding to a match in the matches after the determinedpoint of time, and updates to the calculated schedule-to-resultdifference ratio based upon the monitored condition to determine updatesto the supply match reliability value of the supply plan information,the demand match reliability value of the demand plan information, andupdates to the respective supply and demand trend values, based upon theanother second candidate match; update a display screen at the terminaldevice of demander or the terminal device of supplier during a matchperiod by transmitting information of at least one of supply planinformation or demand plan information, respectively with correspondingdetermined supply and demand match reliabilities, and supply and demandtrend values, to indicate prediction information and reliabilityinformation as indication of future match determination reliability. 4.The matching device according to claim 3, wherein the processor is to,control displaying of a schedule screen of schedule information basedupon at least one of a day, a week or a month at the terminal device ofsupplier and at the terminal device of demander, respectively, to,acquire, from the terminal device of supplier, supply plan informationincluding a plurality of information elements indicating the at leastone of supply services or articles, in correspondence with supplyschedule information in the schedule information including a pluralityof information elements including an information element indicatingscheduling times for the at least one of supply services or articles,and acquire, from the terminal device of demander, demand planinformation including a plurality of information elements indicating theat least one of demand services or articles, in correspondence withdemand schedule information in the schedule information including aplurality of information elements including an information elementindicating scheduling times for the at least one of demand services orarticles; the processor is to perform the continuing to acquire the atleast one of supply plan information or demand plan information during amatch period specified from the terminal device of supplier or theterminal device of demander, to determine the candidate matches.
 5. Thematching device according to claim 4, wherein the processor is to,control displaying a display screen for selection of a match among thecandidate first and second matches; and in response to a selection of amatch, control displaying, at the terminal device of demander or theterminal device of supplier, respectively, a display screen for theselected match among the candidate first and second matches to, specifya schedule of an action for the at least one of supply services orarticles, or for the at least one of demand services or articles, alonga time sequence, according to the selected match, update the schedule ofthe action in response to a trading of the at least one of supplyservices or articles, or of the at least one of demand services orarticles, triggered by the selected match, and provide with the scheduleof the action, the second one of the supply plan information or thesecond one of the demand plan information that is most recently acquiredduring the match period, to indication determination of the at least onesecond candidate match.
 6. The matching device according to claim 4,wherein the processor is to abort the acquire from the terminal deviceof supplier and the terminal device of demander at a time of receivingan instruction to abort the match period.
 7. The matching deviceaccording to claim 4, wherein the processor is to transmit to theterminal device of supplier or the terminal device of demander,respective supply plan information for which a matching has not beensuccessfully determined and demand plan information for which a matchinghas not been successfully determined.
 8. The matching device accordingto claim 3, wherein the processor is to further form statisticalreliability information based upon information including at leastobtained evaluation information indicating degree of reliability of theat least one of supply plan information or demand plan information. 9.The matching device according to claim 3, wherein the processor is tocontrol displaying of a schedule screen of schedule information basedupon a day, a week or a month basis at a plurality of terminal devicesof suppliers or demanders to, acquire, a plurality of supply planinformation of the plurality of terminal devices of suppliers, eachsupply plan information including a plurality of information elementsindicating the at least one of supply services or articles, incorrespondence with supply schedule information in the scheduleinformation including a plurality of information elements including aninformation element indicating scheduling times for the at least one ofservices or articles; acquire a plurality of demand plan information ofthe plurality of terminal devices of demanders, each demand planinformation including a plurality of information elements indicating theat least one of demand services or articles, in correspondence withdemand schedule information in the schedule information including aplurality of information elements including an information elementindicating scheduling times for the at least one of demand services theor articles; perform respective groupings of the plurality of supplyplan and demand plan information on basis of similarity of respectiveinformation elements of the plurality of supply plan and demand planinformation, and the plurality of supply and demand scheduleinformation, and determine the first and the at least one secondcandidate matches according to the respective groupings.
 10. Thematching device according to claim 9, wherein to determine the first andthe at least one second candidate matches according to the respectivegroupings, the processor is to share a result of the first and the atleast one second match to the terminal devices of suppliers or theterminal devices of demanders corresponding to the respective groupings.11. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the processor isfurther to, receive resource element information, from a user, thatindicates at least one of a resource, a quality of services, or aquality of articles to be supplied by the supplier or to be demanded bythe demander, store the resource element information in a memory, andprior to a transmission of the schedule to the matching device, generatethe supply information or the demand information based on the scheduleedited by the user and the resource element information in the memory.12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having recordedthereon a computer program to control a processor of a terminal deviceto, display at least one of a daily, a weekly, and/or or a monthlyschedule, on a display screen of the terminal device, the schedule beinginput to the terminal device by a user and editable on the terminaldevice by the user, the user capable of identifying whether the userrequests a matching based on the schedule, and, in a case where amatching is requested, whether the schedule is used as supplyinformation for the matching, or as demand information for the matching,and in a case where a matching is requested, transmit the scheduleedited by the user as a supplier as the supply information for thematching, or the schedule edited by the user as a demander as the demandinformation for the matching, to a matching device to cause a matchbetween the supply information and the demand information.
 13. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 12,wherein the supply information indicates at least one of supply servicesor articles, obtained from the terminal device as a terminal device ofsupplier, and the demand information indicates at least one of demandservices or articles, obtained from the terminal device as a terminaldevice of demander, and the computer program causes the processor to,register supply plan information obtained from the terminal device ofsupplier, the supply plan information including a plurality ofinformation elements indicating the at least one of supply services orarticles; register demand plan information obtained from the terminaldevice of demander, the demand plan information including a plurality ofinformation elements indicating the demand services or articles; acquireinformation of respective matches between the registered supply planinformation and registered demand plan information, a match among thematches determined based upon candidate matches by, continuing toacquire the at least one of supply plan information or demand planinformation during a match period specified from the terminal device ofsupplier or the terminal device of demander, respectively, to determinethe candidate matches including a first candidate match and at least onesecond candidate match by comparing the information elements of at leastone of a first one of past supply plan information or a first one ofpast demand plan information, with information elements of acorresponding second one of the supply plan information or a second oneof the demand plan information that is most recently acquired during thematch period, the continuing to acquire the at least one of supply planinformation or demand plan information during a match period includes,monitoring information indicating a condition, and in response to thecondition, determine another second candidate match with the condition,the condition being when at least one of the most recently acquiredsecond one of the supply information, the most recently acquired secondone of the demand information, or updating information which updates theat least one of past supply information or past demand information, isacquired from the terminal device of a user as supplier or demander,respectively, to determine the another second candidate match;calculate, based on the information of respective matches, aschedule-to-result difference ratio of the at least one of supply planinformation or demand plan information to determine, a supply matchreliability value of the supply plan information, a demand matchreliability value of the demand plan information, and respective supplyand demand trend values, the schedule-to-result difference ratio of theat least one of supply plan information or demand plan information,respectively, calculated based upon, respective differences between anumber of information elements of the registered supply plan informationat a determined point of time and a number of information elements of asupply plan information corresponding to a match in the matches afterthe determined point of time, and respective differences between anumber of information elements of the registered demand plan informationat a determined point of time and a number of information elements of ademand plan information corresponding to a match in the matches afterthe determined point of time, and updates to the calculatedschedule-to-result difference ratio based upon the monitored conditionto determine updates to the supply match reliability value of the supplyplan information, the demand match reliability value of the demand planinformation, and updates to the respective supply and demand trendvalues, based upon the another second candidate match; update a displayscreen at the terminal device of demander or the terminal devicesupplier during a match period by transmitting information of at leastone of supply plan information or demand plan information, respectivelywith corresponding determined supply and demand match reliabilities, andsupply and demand trend values, to indicate prediction information andreliability information as indication of future match determinationreliability.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 13, wherein the computer program causes the processorto, control displaying of a schedule screen of schedule informationbased upon at least one of a day, a week or a month at the terminaldevice of supplier and at the terminal device of demander, respectively,to, acquire, from the terminal device of supplier, supply planinformation including a plurality of information elements indicating theat least one of supply services or articles, in correspondence withsupply schedule information in the schedule information including aplurality of information elements including an information elementindicating scheduling times for the at least one of services orarticles, and acquire, from the terminal device of demander, demand planinformation including a plurality of information elements indicating theat least one of demand services or articles, in correspondence withdemand schedule information in the schedule information including aplurality of information elements including an information elementindicating scheduling times for the at least one of demand services orarticles; the computer program causes the processor to perform thecontinuing to acquire the at least one of supply plan information ordemand plan information during a match period specified from theterminal device of supplier or the terminal device of demander, todetermine the candidate matches.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium according to claim 14, wherein thecomputer program causes the processor to, control displaying a displayscreen for selection of a match among the candidate first and secondmatches; and in response to a selection of a match, control displaying,at the terminal device of demander or the terminal device of supplier,respectively, a display screen for the selected match among thecandidate first and second matches to, specify a schedule of an actionfor the at least one of supply services or articles, or for the at leastone of demand services or articles, along a time sequence, according tothe selected match, update the schedule of the action in response to atrading of the at least one of supply services or articles, or of the atleast one of demand services or articles triggered by the selectedmatch, and provide with the schedule of the action, the second one ofthe supply plan information or the second one of the demand planinformation that is most recently acquired during the match period, toindication determination of the at least one second candidate match. 16.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim14, wherein the computer program causes the processor to transmit to theterminal device of supplier or the terminal device of demander,respective supply plan information for which a matching has not beensuccessfully determined and demand plan information for which a matchinghas not been successfully determined.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium according to claim 13, wherein thecomputer program causes the processor to further form statisticalreliability information based upon information including at leastobtained evaluation information indicating degree of reliability of theat least one of supply plan information or demand plan information. 18.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim13, wherein the computer program causes the processor to controldisplaying of a schedule screen of schedule information on basis of aday, a week or a month basis at a plurality of terminal devices ofsuppliers or demanders to, acquire a plurality of supply planinformation of the plurality of terminal devices of suppliers, eachsupply plan information including a plurality of information elementsindicating the at least one of supply services or articles, incorrespondence with supply schedule information in the scheduleinformation including a plurality of information elements including aninformation element indicating scheduling times for the at least one ofservices or articles; acquire a plurality of demand plan information ofthe plurality of terminal devices of demanders, each demand planinformation including a plurality of information elements indicating theat least one of demand services or articles, in correspondence withdemand schedule information in the schedule information including aplurality of information elements including an information elementindicating scheduling times for the at least one of services orarticles; perform respective groupings of the plurality of supply planand demand plan information on basis of similarity of respectiveinformation elements of the plurality of supply plan and demand planinformation, and the plurality of supply and demand scheduleinformation, and determine the first and the at least one secondcandidate matches according to the respective groupings.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 18,wherein to determine the first and the at least one second candidatematches according to the respective groupings, the computer programcauses the processor to share a result of the first and the at least onesecond match to the terminal devices of suppliers or the terminaldevices of demanders corresponding to the respective groupings.
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 12,wherein the computer program controls the processor of the terminaldevice further to, receive resource element information, from a user,that indicates at least one of a resource, a quality of services, or aquality of articles to be supplied by the supplier or to be demanded bythe demander, store the resource element information in a memory, andprior to a transmission of the schedule to the matching device, generatethe supply information or the demand information based on the scheduleedited by the user and the resource element information in the memory.21. A system comprising: a plurality of terminal devices; and a matchingdevice to communicationally couple to the plurality of terminal devices,wherein each of the plurality of terminal devices includes a processorto, display at least one of a daily, a weekly, or a monthly schedule, ona display screen of the terminal device, the schedule being input to theterminal device by a user and editable on the terminal device by theuser, the user capable of identifying whether the user requests amatching based on the schedule, and, in a case where a matching isrequested, whether the schedule is used as supply information for thematching, or as demand information for the matching, and in a case wherea matching is requested, transmit the schedule edited by the user as asupplier as the supply information for the matching, or the scheduleedited by the user as a demander as the demand information for thematching, to the matching device to cause a match between the supplyinformation or the demand information transmitted from the terminaldevice, and corresponding demand information or corresponding supplyinformation, respectively, from another terminal device among theplurality of terminal devices.
 22. The system according to claim 21,wherein the supply information indicates at least one of supply servicesor articles, obtained from a terminal device of supplier among theplurality of terminal devices, and the demand information indicates atleast one of demand services or articles, obtained from a terminaldevice of demander among the plurality of terminal devices, and theprocessor is coupled to a memory to, register supply plan informationobtained from the terminal device of supplier, the supply planinformation including a plurality of information elements indicating theat least one of supply services or articles; register demand planinformation obtained from the terminal device of demander, the demandplan information including a plurality of information elementsindicating the demand services or articles; acquire information ofrespective matches between the registered supply plan information andregistered demand plan information, a match among the matches determinedbased upon candidate matches by, continuing to acquire the at least oneof supply plan information or the demand plan information during a matchperiod specified from the terminal device of supplier or the terminaldevice of demander, respectively, to determine the candidate matchesincluding a first candidate match and at least one second candidatematch by comparing the information elements of at least one of a firstone of past supply plan information or a first one of past demand planinformation, with information elements of a corresponding second one ofthe supply plan information or a second one of the demand planinformation that is most recently acquired during the match period, thecontinuing to acquire the at least one of supply plan information or thedemand plan information during a match period includes, monitoringinformation indicating a condition, and in response to the condition,determine another second candidate match with the condition, thecondition being when at least one of the most recently acquired secondone of the supply information, the most recently acquired second one ofthe demand information, or updating information which updates the atleast one of past supply information or the past demand information, isacquired from the terminal device of supplier or the terminal device ofdemander, respectively, to determine the another second candidate match;calculate, based on the information of respective matches, aschedule-to-result difference ratio of the at least one of supply planinformation or the demand plan information to determine, a supply matchreliability value of the supply plan information, a demand matchreliability value of the demand plan information, and respective supplyand demand trend values, the schedule-to-result difference ratio of theat least one of supply plan information or the demand plan information,respectively, calculated based upon, respective differences between anumber of information elements of the registered supply plan informationat a determined point of time and a number of information elements of asupply plan information corresponding to a match in the matches afterthe determined point of time, and respective differences between anumber of information elements of the registered demand plan informationat a determined point of time and a number of information elements of ademand plan information corresponding to a match in the matches afterthe determined point of time, and updates to the calculatedschedule-to-result difference ratio based upon the monitored conditionto determine updates to the supply match reliability value of the supplyplan information, the demand match reliability value of the demand planinformation, and updates to the respective supply and demand trendvalues, based upon the another second candidate match; update a displayscreen at the terminal device of demander or the terminal device ofsupplier during a match period by transmitting information of at leastone of supply plan information or demand plan information, respectivelywith corresponding determined supply and demand match reliabilities, andsupply and demand trend values, to indicate prediction information andreliability information as indication of future match determinationreliability.
 23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the processoris to, control displaying of a schedule screen of schedule informationbased upon at least one of a day, a week or a month at the terminaldevice of supplier and at the terminal device of demander, respectively,to, acquire, from the terminal device of supplier, supply planinformation including a plurality of information elements indicating theat least one of supply services or articles, in correspondence withsupply schedule information in the schedule information including aplurality of information elements including an information elementindicating scheduling times for the at least one of services orarticles, and acquire, from the terminal device of demander, demand planinformation including a plurality of information elements indicating theat least one of demand services or articles, in correspondence withdemand schedule information in the schedule information including aplurality of information elements including an information elementindicating scheduling times for the at least one of demand services orarticles; the processor is to perform the continuing to acquire the atleast one of supply plan information or demand plan information during amatch period specified from the terminal device of supplier or theterminal device of demander, to determine the candidate matches.
 24. Thesystem according to claim 23, wherein the processor is to, controldisplaying a display screen for selection of a match among the candidatefirst and second matches; and in response to a selection of a match,control displaying, at the terminal device of demander or the terminaldevice of supplier, respectively, a display screen for the selectedmatch among the candidate first and second matches to, specify aschedule of an action for the at least one of supply services orarticles, or for the at least one of demand services or articles, alonga time sequence, according to the selected match, update the schedule ofthe action in response to a trading of the at least one of supplyservices or articles, or of the at least one of demand services orarticles triggered by the selected match, and provide with the scheduleof the action, the second one of the supply plan information or thesecond one of the demand plan information that is most recently acquiredduring the match period, to indication determination of the at least onesecond candidate match.
 25. The system according to claim 22, whereinthe processor is to further form statistical reliability informationbased upon information including at least obtained evaluationinformation indicating degree of reliability of the at least one ofsupply plan information or demand plan information.
 26. The systemaccording to claim 22, wherein the processor is to control displaying ofa schedule screen of schedule information on basis of a day, a week or amonth basis at the plurality of terminal devices of suppliers ordemanders to, acquire a plurality of supply plan information of theplurality of terminal devices of suppliers, each supply plan informationincluding a plurality of information elements indicating the at leastone of supply services or articles, in correspondence with supplyschedule information in the schedule information including a pluralityof information elements including an information element indicatingscheduling times for the at least one services or articles; acquire aplurality of demand plan information of the plurality of terminaldevices of demanders, each demand plan information including a pluralityof information elements indicating the at least one of demand servicesor articles, in correspondence with demand schedule information in theschedule information including a plurality of information elementsincluding an information element indicating scheduling times for the atleast one of services or articles; perform respective groupings of theplurality of supply plan and demand plan information on basis ofsimilarity of respective information elements of the plurality of supplyplan and demand plan information, and the plurality of supply and demandschedule information, and determine the first and the at least onesecond candidate matches according to the respective groupings.
 27. Thesystem according to claim 21, wherein the processor is further to,receive resource element information, from a user, that indicates atleast one of a resource, a quality of services, or a quality of articlesto be supplied by the supplier or to be demanded by the demander, storethe resource element information in a memory, and prior to atransmission of the schedule to the matching device, generate the supplyinformation or the demand information based in the schedule edited bythe user and the resource element information on the memory.